The effects of musical experience in young children and the role of music in the rehabilitation of stroke patients will be among the many topics on the agenda as experts from around the world gather at McGill University in Montreal for the international conference, The Neurosciences and Music III: Disorders and Plasticity. The conference will be held from June 25-28.

The conference is a partnership between Italy's Fondazione Mariani, the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, as well as McGill University, which is co-hosting the meeting, the Montreal Neurological Institute, and Université de Montréal. Organized and supported by the Fondazione Mariani, the conference will revolve around seven symposia in which the world's foremost researchers will present their most significant – and sometimes controversial – research findings.

Every lecture will relate to the main theme of the conference: the study of perception and processing of music in physiologic and pathologic conditions, with special focus on cerebral plasticity mechanisms – the way the human brain changes through experience, and the acquisition of new knowledge or skills.

"The decision to focus on disorders and plasticity was based on the current strong interest of neuroscience experts in brain plasticity and, in particular, on the study of how the musician's brain processes musical information," according to neuroscientist Robert Zatorre, PhD, a member of the scientific committee for the conference.

In addition to the symposia, the program includes two poster sessions and a workshop on methodological aspects of research, addressed to those seeking more in-depth information on research design in the field of neurosciences.