Things that get you hooked

Why do we love music so much? How can this mysterious form of art guide our emotions? In this talk we will explore how music can change our state of mind. First, by understanding how our brain dances to music, what happens in our brain when we listen to certain styles of music and how this affects the behaviour of our whole body. Second, how musical training can even change the brain forever, providing professional musicians with fantastic abilities. Let’s explore a new way to understand the brain with music!

Smoking is one of the main preventable causes of death, still 20% of the population are smokers. Even though policy changes such as smoking bans and health warnings had great success in decreasing smoking rates, developing treatments to help smokers stop has been moderately successful at best. I will discuss the complexity of the smoking behaviour which comprises nicotine addiction but also sensory and motor stimulation. Using methods from experimental psychology we can tease apart the different components of tobacco addiction, and aid the development of novel quitting methods.