Dr. Iris Mencke 

In daily life humans are often exposed to uncertain environments. Such situations bear challenges because the outcomes of decisions are difficult to estimate, i.e., they cannot be predicted with high certainty. However, humans are intrinsically curious and possess an inherent drive to explore uncertain environments. Until now we lack a full picture of the dynamics and mechanisms with which human individuals process sensory uncertainty and how they successfully reduce uncertainty.

The proposed project investigates how the human brain and behavior respond to auditory uncertainty by utilizing the inherent complexity of music, particularly that of twentieth century Western atonal music, which intrinsically possesses a high degree of uncertainty. A variety of different analysis techniques will be employed in order to investigate how auditory uncertainty is represented in the brain. Additionally, by drawing on a unique sample of musicians specialized in atonal music, the effects of long-term training in this style will be studied.

This project promises to unravel novel dimensions about how humans deal with and successfully mitigate uncertainty and furthermore focuses on a musical style that has largely been neglected by empirical research. Benefitting from a unique interdisciplinary convergence of neuroscience and musicology, the findings will have broad implications for the field of cognitive neuroscience and further elucidate the role that atonal music plays in Western society.