Dr. Laura Cirelli

Dr. Laura Cirelli is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the director of the TEMPO lab (timing, entrainment, & music perception). She completed her PhD in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University in 2016. Her research focuses on how engaging in musical activities can be a social and an emotional experience for infants. She use behavioural and physiological methods (e.g. skin conductance, electroencephalography) to investigate the development of music perception and production. Her research explores how infants direct prosociality toward musical partners, how infant directed singing can influence the caregiver-infant relationship, and how rhythm perception and production develops across infancy and childhood. Her research has been featured by the New York Times, David Suzuki’s The Nature of Things, and National Public Radio’s Hidden Brain.