Sebastian Kirschner

Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
Germany

 

Research interests:

• origin and evolution of music as a communicative system
• adaptive functions of group music making: including vocal singing, dancing and instrumental play
• music cognition and ontogeny of musicality from a social perspective
• interrelations between music and language
• evolution of language

Relicts:

• anatomy of the olfactory pathway in the brain of social insects (Hymenoptera)
• evolution of olfactory communication in social insects

 

Ongoing projects:

• transfer-effects of joint music making on cooperation and prosocial behavior in children
• ontogeny of rhythmic synchronization capacity in children from Brazil and Germany (together with Beatriz Ilari)
• rhythmic gestures in great apes: characteristics and behavioural context
• role of synchronized group drumming in religious practice (together with Emma Cohen)
• synchronization capacity in dolphins (together with John Iversen and Ani Patel)