NeuroMusicLab at Keio SFC

Neurosciences and Music Laboratory at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus

We research Neurosciences and Music (NeuroMusic) to understand why music is so fundamental to humans. We believe that music can be a prove to identify higher-order human brain functions such as skilled motor control and learning, perception, cognition, memory, emotion, creativity, etc. We aim to clarify the origin of our musicality in the brain to augment the possibility of music for harmonious future.

Interest in the Neurosciences of Music has grown rapidly over the last few decades. However, there has been almost no laboratory for this field in Japan, despite a growing recognition of the need to understand the neural origin of our musicality. NeuroMusicLab at Keio SFC (Neurosciences and Music Laboratory at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus) was founded by Dr. Shinya Fujii to address this need.

We are currently accepting applications from prospective graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Please email Dr. Fujii for more details (please include a brief description of research interests and attach a CV when you contact).

Dr. Shinya Fujii, Associate Professor and Director of NeuroMusicLab, is explaining the NeuroMusicLab in the video.

Dr. Shinya Fujii, Director, NeuroMusicLab

Dr. Shinya Fujii, Director, NeuroMusicLab, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University

Shinya Fujii is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, Chairperson of X-Design program at Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University, and Director of x-Music Laboratory at Keio Research Institute at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC). Fujii was awarded a scholarship from AN Music School Kyoto as a drummer and completed his Ph.D. in Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University by studying neuro-muscular mechanisms underlying skilled drumming movements. His research interests lie in the Neurosciences and Music, the neural origin of musicality to perceive and produce rhythm and beat. He completed his term as postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Tokyo, the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto Canada, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston USA. After serving as a Project Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo and as an Assistant Professor at Keio University, he took up his present position from 2019.

EMPLOYMENT AND FELLOWSHIPS

  • 2019 – Present Keio University, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Associate Professor
  • 2016 – 2019 Keio University, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Assistant Professor
  • 2015 – 2016 The University of Tokyo, Department of Physical and Health Education, Graduate School of Education, Project Assistant Professor
  • 2013 – 2015 University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery (CPSR), Postdoctoral Fellow
  • 2011 – 2013 Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Postdoctoral Fellow
  • 2010 – 2013 The University of Tokyo, Department of Physical and Health Education, Graduate School of Education, Postdoctoral Fellow
  • 2013 – 2015 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad
  • 2010 – 2013 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (PD)
  • 2007 – 2010 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC1)

EDUCATION

  • 2010 Ph.D. in Human and Environmental Studies (Kyoto University) 
  • 2005-2010 Kyoto University, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies 
  • 2001-2005 Kyoto University, Faculty of Integrated Human Studies
  • 2002-2005 Kyoto AN Music School, Department of Percussion (Scholar Awarded)

AREA OF EXPERTISE

  • Music and Neuroscience (Neuromusic)
  • Drums and Rhythm
  • Music Brain and Body
  • Motor Control and Learning in Music Performance
  • Music Perception and Cognition
  • Origin of Human Musicality
  • Beat Perception and Synchronization
  • Amusia and Beat-deafness
  • Auditory Feedback and Motor Rehabilitation

Message

When I was a student, I went to a jazz bar almost every day to play drums. I started my research because I wanted to know how expert musicians control their body movements. As I continue my research, I become more interested in how our musicality emerges through the course of development and evolution and how the brain processes rhythm and music. Many years have passed since I started my research but I feel that the motor control research on musicians and the neuroscience of music are still in infancy. I am very excited to start my lab here at SFC and looking forward to enjoying ‘extremely’ unique research together with you.


Unraveling the Mystery behind Human Evolution from the Science of Music

Our bodies move naturally in time to the tunes that we hear by chance. While this is an involuntary response, an advanced level of information processing, which is possible only for human beings, takes place inside our brains at that point in time. Associate Professor Shinya Fujii is an unconventional researcher. After falling in love with the drums in his teens, he has been polishing his skills as a drummer while engaging in research work based on the themes of drums and music. He is currently conducting research on a wide range of subjects concerning the fundamental question of what music is to human beings, from the perspective of neuroscience. Music holds a wealth of hints to contribute to our understanding of human beings, and we may find the key to solving the puzzle behind human evolution hidden in its depths.

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Music and Science

When you hear the words “music and science,” what do you imagine? Is it unnatural to imagine a connection between the two, because they are so divided? Or is the connection between the two so natural that it would be more difficult to imagine their separation?

When I was a student, I was troubled by the division between music and science. As a drummer at the time, I spent most of my time playing at a jazz bar in Kyoto, Japan. When I brought the sensations I learned from my performances to the field of scientific research, I heard the words “subjective,” “not objective,” “not reproducible,” and “not scientific” over and over again. I vividly remember asking myself over and over again whether “music” and “science” are difficult to connect, whether “music” and “science” have an exclusive relationship, whether “musicians” and “scientists” are contradictory, and what exactly “music,” “science,” and “research” are.

As I repeatedly asked myself these questions, I met many people who gave me opportunities to think, practice, and research. All the musicians, scientists, and researchers I have met and admired have faced the truth of people and things with a pure heart, and continued to explore and express themselves. As I witnessed their sincerity, I realized that the practice of music and scientific inquiry are the same, and that both musicians and researchers are questing for the same truth. At that moment, I felt a light in my mind.

On the other hand, looking at the world from a bird’s eye view, especially in Japan, I feel that music and science are still divided. Why are there no music departments in universities in Japan? Why is it that sports science exists as a matter of course, but not music science? When we think about the future of music, humanity, and the earth, there is still much to be researched about music.

The world faces many global problems such as infectious diseases, destruction of nature, environmental pollution, extreme weather, resource depletion, food shortages, and war friction. There is no time to bemoan the division between music and science. Now is the time for all people on the earth to come together and reconsider the power of music and science. We believe that the fusion of music and science will unite and unify the people and livings, and will make the social bonding of the earth deeper and stronger, and this world will become more “groovy.”

“Drumming up hope for players” A drummer with the popular band RADWIMPS strikes up a collaboration with Dr. Shinya Fujii when his career is interrupted by a rare disorder, called musician’s dystonia. To watch the video, please visit here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/videos/20231003214251429/

Drum Session with Odakyu Railway / Shinya Fujii / x-Music Lab / Keio University SFC

PUBLICATIONS


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