Dr. Courtney Hilton is a cognitive scientist and postdoctoral research fellow at The Music Lab at Harvard University.

In this episode we talk about Courtney’s background as a musician and transition into cognitive science, and how musical cognition is studied in humans. We discuss evolutionary theories of whether music evolved for socially adaptive purposes or as a byproduct of language, how certain universal acoustic patterns such as higher pitch during play and in speaking to children, and lower pitch to signal dominance during conflict, may have given rise to the different emotions music can elicit, and how we find an optimal level of complexity in enjoying music. Additionally, we talk about Courtney’s recent work on cross-cultural patterns of music, such as singing to infants, as well as how music and musical cognition differs across cultures.