Dr. Robert Zatorre is interested in the neuronal basis of auditory events, specifically speech and music. He studies brain-damaged patients as well as normal subjects using contemporary brain-imaging techniques, including PET and MRI. One of his projects investigates the ability to "hear" music in the mind, the goal being to determine whether the same part of the brain is used to perceive sounds originating internally and externally. Dr. Zatorre also collaborates with Dr. Marilyn Jones-Gotman in studying how the chemical senses---taste and smell---work together to produce a psychological event known as "flavour." In collaboration with Dr. Laura Petitto of McGill's Department of Psychology, he is studying the cognitive processing of sign language among the deaf, the goal being to reveal how the nervous system adapts to the lack of input in one modality to permit the processing of visual signs instead of speech.

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E-mail: Robert Zatorre
Web Site: Zatorre lab