The next meeting of the AES Melbourne Section will be held on Monday December 9th 2019 at 7:30pm at
The SAE Institute – Lecture Theatre, 235 Normanby Rd South Melbourne (directions below).
Associate Professor Neil McLachlan of the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences will present on the topic:
Sound and Emotion
This talk will outline a new neuro-biological understanding of how hearing works. It will show how many auditory functions generally believed to involve complex neural processes in the human neo-cortex, are actually shared with primitive animals, and so involve ancient and relatively simple brain networks.
It will highlight the role of emotion processing centres in the brain in controlling these primitive brain networks and contributing to many of the functions and dysfunctions of hearing. For example, the central role of emotion in hearing is obvious when we think of music, but it may also contribute to tinnitus and hyperacusis, and control our attention and decisions about sound quality.
Details:
Mon 9th December 2019 at 7:30pm
-at-
The SAE Institute – Lecture Theatre
235 Normanby Road
South Melbourne
About Neil McLachlan:
Neil MacLachlan, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences has worked as a researcher in departments of engineering, architecture, psychology and music at Universities and the Department of Defense, and also professionally as a performer, instrument designer and acoustic consultant including work with indigenous and ‘at risk’ communities in Australia and SE Asia.
Neil has also designed and manufactured musical instrument and sound installations in a wide variety of cultural and architectural contexts including the Federation Bell project, completed in 2002 and now listed by the BBC as one of the World’s top ten public artworks, and subsequent installations here and overseas.
These projects involved the use of Neil’s advanced vibration modelling software coupled with artificial intelligence algorithms, and led to the design of the World’s first harmonic bells and gongs.
In 2005 Neil applied these technologies to the design of an analogue music turntable for Continuum Audio that was awarded the prize for best new product at the Audiophile international trade show in Los Angeles, USA in 2006.
In 2006 Neil took up a position as an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Melbourne specifically to develop models of the human auditory system and psycho-acoustic measures associated with acoustic design.
Here he developed his unique neurobiological model of auditory perception that has been applied to new computational models of pitch and dissonance perception; speech, music and sound recognition; and to measuring and understanding auditory and brain operation and dysfunction.
The model was used for forensic analyses of sound recordings in a Supreme Court murder trial in 2018.
Neil has supervised numerous Masters and PhD students, secured significant competitive research funding, and published more than 60 peer reviewed research publications.
Neil also works with two start-up companies developing new music technologies and artificial intelligence systems for speech and music, while also supervising graduate students working on music psychology, autism, and tinnitus in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences in an honorary capacity.
Directions: Entry to SAE is via the Students’ Entry, now located on Woodgate St (at rear of building).
Please report to the Supervisor’s Desk at this entry, and you will be directed to the Lecture Theatre (upstairs in the rear of the building).