Problems in Complex Di​sease Biology: Human musicality, language traits, and health: Harnessing big data

Friday, April 10, 2026

9:00-10.50 am

Keating Bioresearch Building, Rm. 103

 

 

 

Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Co-director, Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab

 

 

The hallmark of our colloquium is its inter/multi-disciplinarity. So far we have heard from geneticists, genomicists, statisticians, computational biologists, immunologists, and physician-scientists. Even more ground will be covered once we get to the microbiome and rare sensory cells. Far from being capricious, such a variety in focus and approach is necessary: each of our lecturers offers a distinctive angle so that each of us listeners can build a multifaceted view of our complex field.

 

This week brings us a fabulous example of multi-disciplinarity: Reyna Gordon, the co-director of the Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab where she leads the Rhythm, Language & Genetics Group. Her team explores the role of rhythm in the development and disorders of language from a perspective that integrates behavioral, cognitive, neural, and genetic components. Reyna will tell us about the relationships between rhythm and grammar skills, the neural mechanisms that underlie these relationships, the genetics of language disorders, and how musical training can improve language skills - all of that while keeping an eye on health and big data. These may not be themes we have heard a lot about, but they are fundamental for human nature and as such they definitely belong in our colloquium.

 

So, please join me this Friday for a one-of-a-kind foray into the complexities of the human mind and some of the properties that make us who we are.