@article {2024, title = {New advances and novel applications of music technologies for health, well-being, and inclusion Front. Comput. Sci. 6:1358454. doi: 10.3389/fcomp.2024.1358454}, journal = {Frontiers in Computer Science}, volume = {6:1358454}, year = {2024}, month = {01/2024}, keywords = {accessibility, Digital Musical Instruments, healthcare, multimodal interaction, music technology, Music Therapy, sound and music, wellbeing}, doi = {doi:10.3389/fcomp.2024.1358454}, author = {Emma Frid and Kjetil Falkenberg and Kat Agres and Alex Lucas} } @article {2023, title = {Intra- and inter-brain coupling and activity dynamics during improvisational music therapy with a person with dementia: an explorative EEG-hyperscanning single case study}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology: Cognitive Science}, volume = {14:1155732}, year = {2023}, month = {09/2023}, abstract = {Objective: Real-life research into the underlying neural dynamics of improvisational music therapy, used with various clinical populations, is largely lacking. This single case study explored within-session differences in musical features and in within- and between-brain coupling between a Person with Dementia (PwD) and a music therapist during a music therapy session. Methods: Dual-EEG from a music therapist and a PwD (male, 31 years) was recorded. Note density, pulse clarity and synchronicity were extracted from audio-visual data. Three music therapists identified moments of interest and no interest (MOI/MONI) in two drum improvisations. The Integrative Coupling Index, reflecting time-lagged neural synchronization, and musical features were compared between the MOI and MONI. Results: Between-brain coupling of 2 Hz activity was increased during the MOI, showing anteriority of the therapist{\textquoteright}s neural activity. Within-brain coupling for the PwD was stronger from frontal and central areas during the MOI, but within-brain coupling for the therapist was stronger during MONI. Differences in musical features indicated that both acted musically more similar to one another during the MOI. Conclusion: Within-session differences in neural synchronization and musical features highlight the dynamic nature of music therapy. Significance: The findings contribute to a better understanding of social and affective processes in the brain and (interactive) musical behaviors during specific moments in a real-life music therapy session. This may provide insights into the role of such moments for relational-therapeutic processes.}, keywords = {brain coupling, dementia, EEG, improv, Music Therapy}, doi = {doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1155732}, author = {Clemens Maidhof and Viktor M{\"u}ller and Olivier Lartillot and Kat Agres and Jodie Bloska and Rie Asano and Helen Odell-Miller and J{\"o}rg Fachner} } @article {2021, title = {Music Therapy During COVID-19: Changes to the Practice, Use of Technology, and What to Carry Forward in the Future}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {05/2021}, chapter = {1317}, abstract = {In recent years, the field of music therapy (MT) has increasingly embraced the use of technology for conducting therapy sessions and enhancing patient outcomes. Amidst a worldwide pandemic, we sought to examine whether this is now true to an even greater extent, as many music therapists have had to approach and conduct their work differently. The purpose of this survey study is to observe trends in how music therapists from different regions around the world have had to alter their practice, especially in relation to their use of technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, because of limited options to conduct in-person therapy due to social distancing measures. Further, the findings aim to clarify music therapists{\textquoteright} perspectives on the benefits and limitations of technology in MT, as well as online MT. In addition, this survey investigated what changes have been necessary to administer MT during COVID-19, in terms of virtual therapy and online tools, and how the changes made now may affect MT in the future. We also explored music therapists{\textquoteright} views on whether special technology-focused training might be helpful to support the practice of MT in the future. This is the first survey, to our knowledge, to break down opinions of and trends in technology use based on geographical region (North America, Europe, and Asia), and several noteworthy differences were apparent across regions. We hope our findings provide useful information, guidance, and a global reference point for music therapists on effectively continuing the practice of MT during times of crisis, and can encourage reflection and improvement in administering MT.}, keywords = {COVID-19 pandemic, music technology, Music Therapy, online tools, regional comparisons, regional practices, teletherapy}, doi = {DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647790}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647790}, author = {Agres, Kat R. and Foubert, Katrien and Sridhar, Siddarth} } @article {9999, title = {Entraining IDyOT: timing in the information dynamics of thinking}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology: Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience}, volume = {7:1575}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We present a novel hypothetical account of entrainment in music and language, in context of the Information Dynamics of Thinking model, IDyOT. The extended model affords an alternative view of entrainment, and its companion term, pulse, from earlier accounts. The model is based on hierarchical, statistical prediction, modeling expectations of both what an event will be and when it will happen. As such, it constitutes a kind of predictive coding, with a particular novel hypothetical implementation. Here, we focus on the model{\textquoteright}s mechanism for predicting when a perceptual event will happen, given an existing sequence of past events, which may be musical or linguistic. We propose a range of tests to validate or falsify the model, at various different levels of abstraction, and argue that computational modeling in general, and this model in particular, can offer a means of providing limited but useful evidence for evolutionary hypotheses.}, keywords = {anticipatory cognition, cognitive architecture, evolutionary psychology, language, music perception, timing}, author = {Jamie Forth and Kat Agres and Matt Purver and Geraint Wiggins} } @article {2017, title = {Evaluation of Musical Creativity and Musical Metacreation Systems}, journal = {ACM Comput. Entertain.}, volume = {14}, year = {2016}, month = {12/2016}, pages = {3:1{\textendash}3:33}, abstract = {The field of computational creativity, including musical metacreation, strives to develop artificial systems that are capable of demonstrating creative behavior or producing creative artefacts. But the claim of creativity is often assessed, subjectively only on the part of the researcher and not objectively at all. This article provides theoretical motivation for more systematic evaluation of musical metacreation and computationally creative systems and presents an overview of current methods used to assess human and machine creativity that may be adapted for this purpose. In order to highlight the need for a varied set of evaluation tools, a distinction is drawn among three types of creative systems: those that are purely generative, those that contain internal or external feedback, and those that are capable of reflection and self-reflection. To address the evaluation of each of these aspects, concrete examples of methods and techniques are suggested to help researchers (1) evaluate their systems{\textquoteright} creative process and generated artefacts, and test their impact on the perceptual, cognitive, and affective states of the audience, and (2) build mechanisms for reflection into the creative system, including models of human perception and cognition, to endow creative systems with internal evaluative mechanisms to drive self-reflective processes. The first type of evaluation can be considered external to the creative system and may be employed by the researcher to both better understand the efficacy of their system and its impact and to incorporate feedback into the system. Here we take the stance that understanding human creativity can lend insight to computational approaches, and knowledge of how humans perceive creative systems and their output can be incorporated into artificial agents as feedback to provide a sense of how a creation will impact the audience. The second type centers around internal evaluation, in which the system is able to reason about its own behavior and generated output. We argue that creative behavior cannot occur without feedback and reflection by the creative/metacreative system itself. More rigorous empirical testing will allow computational and metacreative systems to become more creative by definition and can be used to demonstrate the impact and novelty of particular approaches.}, keywords = {artificial intelligence, Music perception and cognition}, issn = {1544-3574}, doi = {10.1145/2967506}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2967506}, author = {Agres, Kat and Forth, Jamie and Wiggins, Geraint A.} } @proceedings {2016, title = {The Information Dynamics of Thinking: a cognitive architecture for human creative cognition}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, abstract = {We present IDyOT (Wiggins, 2012b), the Information Dynamics of Thinking, a novel cognitive architecture that instantiates the (much more abstract) Global Workspace Theory of Baars (1988), in a way motivated by a principle of efficiency in information processing. IDyOT simulates a hypothetical fundamental perceptual/cognitive loop, explicating bottom-up learning of concepts, the hierarchical structure in them, and the correlations between them from percepts. Even though the proposal is basically cognitive, embodiment is not ruled out, and the tight connection between perception and cognition potentially affords a future extension of the account to an embodied view.}, author = {Wiggins, Geraint A and Agres, Kat and Forth, Jamie and Purver, Matt} }