The musical brain: A meeting of minds

The Royal Institution's special summer event this year was a day-long public forum on one of the most rapidly developing fields of human research. The examination of the relationship between music and brain-function has been going on in earnest for around a decade. Several leading experts in the field gave presentations, and following the forum, there were two evening performances by the National Youth Orchestra and the Orpheus Centre. The event was sponsored by the International Foundation for Music Research and the Kohn Foundation. Baroness Susan Greenfield demonstrated the role of the Royal Institution to the audience by showing the mixture of disciplines present at the public forum, as both scientists, musicians and members of the public come together to discuss science.