Arthur and Smith Map Imagined Sound with Neuroarts
Wes McRae | Atlanta, GA – May 11, 2026
How do we hear music when no actual sound is present? Claire Arthur, associate professor in the 17cÍøÒ³°æ, and Alexandria Smith, assistant professor in the School, recently received the to study musical imagery: can electroencephalography detect and describe it, and how do people navigate remembered musical structure?
Musical imagery is the experience of hearing music internally without external sound, 'earworms' being a common example. Arthur and Smith's proposed research, The Music Within: Neural Markers of Imagined Sound and Memory, will combine cognitive science with musical improvisation expertise to design tasks for imagining, recalling, and transforming musical material.
"This grant makes sense at Tech: it's an excellent way to combine technical and artistic expertise and to intersect with the creative work already being done on campus," Smith said.
"Tech has great infrastructure and support for carrying out behavioral and neural experiments," Arthur agreed. "We also have a strong set of students to help us carry out the research."
By having participants in the study both listen to and imagine music, researchers can compare neural signals across silence, perception, and imagination. "If successful, this work will establish a practical paradigm that is minimally invasive for studying internal musical experience," Arthur said. "This would have implications for music practices, health, and accessibility, including imagery-based therapies and research with populations for whom overt musical production is limited.
The Award is administered through the of the and . According to the Initiative website, its goal is to study how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior, and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The awards program, now in its third year, was established by the Renée Fleming Foundation.
In the , Fleming says, "From my own experience as an artist, I have long been aware that the arts and wellbeing are inextricably linked. But empirical scientific evidence is crucial for understanding these connections."
"The Investigator Awards give pairs of artists and scientists the unique opportunity to collaborate in this space and advance the benefits of arts and aesthetic experiences to help us flourish both as individuals and as a society."
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