brainmusic

Minds in rhythm

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:33:16 +0000

Minds in rhythm Michael Kwolek Tue, 11/11/2025 - 09:33

Michael Kwolek

Imagine the cacophony of a conversation in which everyone talks, listens and responds at the same time.

Trained musicians performing together can make a similar set of sensory inputs and brain activity truly resonate. Though a feature of the human experience for thousands of years, interbrain synchronization when playing music is not well understood.

As a member of the Brain Music Lab, ATLAS PhD student Thiago Roque has developed novel techniques for studying these nuanced dynamics with the aim to expand our understanding not only of musical performance, but also of human-to-human collaboration and connection more broadly.

In his teens, Roque fell in love with music while beginning to develop his engineering skills. “I always wanted to be an engineer because I wanted to understand how things work, mostly toys and mechanics, electrical stuff,” he said, “but at that point, I also wanted to understand music.”

When he got his first electronic keyboard, he realized, “An electrical engineer designed this to make music, so I realized that I could connect both things.”

After earning BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering at University of Campinas in Brazil, Roque came to study with Grace Leslie at Georgia Tech, then transferred to ��ɫ��Ƶ when Leslie opened her Brain Music Lab in the ATLAS Institute.

“Thiago has been a really integral part of the Brain Music Lab,” Leslie noted. “A lot of that has to do with his engineering background—it's rare to find graduate students who have the musical sophistication to be working on these projects and can rise to the occasion when it comes to developing custom technology for the research questions that we have.”

Studying brains in motion

Analyzing brain activity in moving bodies is surprisingly challenging—standard EEG data is captured in subjects who remain still.

Roque has studied how dancers’ brains sync when they perform together, using his electrical engineering background to develop ways to improve the quality of EEG data in moving subjects.

To compensate for all the action involved, he sewed motion sensors into the EEG caps and modified hardware to read neck and eye movement to improve data quality. This led to more ambitious plans with an even higher degree of difficulty.

The string ensemble experiment

Having dreamed for years of being able to analyze a string quartet performing a piece of music, Roque explained, “we needed all the equipment to be precisely synchronized, so we had to design this hardware that sends triggers and synchronizes everything. I designed and assembled the printed circuit boards myself.”

He spent months incorporating off-the-shelf EEG equipment, accelerometers and other sensors with custom-designed components to normalize the data and sync it between all the musicians.

The next step was finding a quartet willing to participate in the experiment. Luckily, ��ɫ��Ƶ’s College of Music—across the street from the ATLAS Institute—is home to several student quartets, including the ensemble that ultimately agreed to participate.

Roque said, “We wanted to work with students here because we know they will have regular rehearsals. They will have just met each other at the beginning of the semester, so they are new to it. We are planning to measure them at the end of the semester so we can see the progress, how they develop.”

The research team

This project has not been a solo gig. Daniel Ethridge, Daniel Llamas Maldonado and Sophia Mehdizadeh from the Brain Music Lab—as well as several master’s and undergraduate students—have been instrumental in executing the string quartet research.

An interdisciplinary performance

For Roque, the ATLAS Institute offers several unique elements that make this type of research possible. “It's an interdisciplinary environment that fosters challenging research with high risks but potentially high payouts, and it's a very creative place,” he noted.

“Thinking about the University of Colorado, I had this opportunity to enroll in this triple PhD program. I'm getting a PhD in creative technology and design, neuroscience and cognitive science.”

Leslie explained how this research fits into the Brain Music Lab’s larger mission: “While we are focusing on technology and developing new technology and studying how humans interface with it, what sets us apart is our focus on the really human element to it.”

The next movement

Roque aims to continue studying this young quartet to determine if their brain activity syncs more thoroughly as they continue to perform together. He would also like to study graduate musicians and seasoned professionals to learn how interbrain coupling may change based on the experience level of the musicians.

Expanding the scope

Brain Music Lab director, Grace Leslie, recently performed a solo improvisational piece, Inside the Tank, in the B2 Black Box Theater, integrating EEG headset and body sensors.

The lab team also outfitted several audience members with EEG monitors, giving Roque additional data to study the physiological responses of those experiencing live music.

Roque also looks forward to bringing this technology to the stage. Plans are in the works for a string quartet performance in the spring semester with a huge visualization of live physiological data to give the audience a sense of the musicians’ synchronization.

“A lot of it is developing this technology that we hopefully can use in the future to continue to study musical group dynamics,” Leslie said, “but there's also this human-computer interaction application where he's done some of the foundational research to show that we can develop brain-computer interfaces that can be social.”

This research may reveal insights as to how human connection and collaboration work. Over time, it could lead to tools and techniques to improve our ability to sync with each other when working on complex tasks—whether that means performing in a string quartet, playing a team sport or simply holding a nuanced conversation.

ATLAS PhD student studies how brain activity syncs when musicians perform together.

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Bruns & Leslie research cybernetic human advancement with New Frontiers Grant

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 21:31:49 +0000

Bruns & Leslie research cybernetic human advancement with New Frontiers Grant Michael Kwolek Tue, 06/17/2025 - 15:31

Michael Kwolek

From implantable devices like pacemakers and brain interfaces to smart wearables, humans are fast becoming more cybernetic than we might realize.

Implanted devices tend to have higher fidelity and functionality than wearables, but require extremely invasive surgery. Smart tech is lower-cost and easy to use, but can be uncomfortable while offering limited functionality.

What if there was a middle ground, a set of technologies that allowed for the best of both worlds? Such solutions could enable people to achieve peak performance in a range of physical and mental activities, simplify ongoing health monitoring, and help those with mobility challenges control the devices that support their daily lives.

Seamless Skin Integration of Brain/Body-Computer Interfaces for Cybernetic Human Advancement

Project: Seamless Skin Integration of Brain/Body-Computer Interfaces for Cybernetic Human Advancement

Planning Phase Award: $50,000

The ��ɫ��Ƶ New Frontiers Grant Program is designed to foster groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research projects with the potential for high impact. “High impact” projects may include the potential for significant advancements in knowledge, problem-solving or innovation that exceeds incremental progress and creates new paradigms of understanding.

With support from the Research & Innovation Office (RIO), the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Engineering & Applied Science and the School of Education, New Frontiers is open to any eligible ��ɫ��Ƶ faculty member.

A surprising partnership

Researchers at the ATLAS Institute are working on just that through a unique collaboration toward what they call “cybernetic human advancement.”

Carson Bruns, associate professor (ATLAS Institute, Mechanical Engineering), and Grace Leslie, associate professor (ATLAS Institute, College of Music), have partnered to study ways to create the functionality of an implantable device with the ease of a wearable.

The project was kickstarted with funding from ��ɫ��Ƶ’s New Frontiers Grant Program.

This 12-month Planning Phase Award, funded through the Research & Innovation Office (RIO), supports project planning and initial data collection for two lines of inquiry.

Real life sci-fi

Cybernetic humans may sound like science fiction, but such technology is very much a reality. Bruns explains, “When we hear the word ‘cyborg,’ we think of a cyberpunk half-robot. But there are really common examples of body-integrated technology like cochlear implants for the hearing impaired or lens replacements for vision-impaired people or cardiac pacemakers for people who have heart conditions.”

He elaborates, “We're going to continue to integrate our bodies with technology more and more. And we'd like to contribute our own piece to this movement to ensure that it's done in a safe and ethical way, and also because we think it's exciting and there are tremendous potential benefits. So we decided to call this domain ‘human enhancement’ as opposed to ‘cyborg’ or ‘cybernetic.’”

The skin as interface

It’s possible the next generation of wearables will not look like the watches and rings we currently see in the market.

Bruns says, “One of the things I do in my lab is try to use the skin as the interface for these human enhancements. These technologies that we're going to merge with the body, I think the skin is really the best for that because it's the least invasive place to put a permanent implant. You usually don't even need a doctor or a hospital if it's small enough. You can just tattoo it, and that's something that almost anybody can do safely. So it's very convenient if you're going to permanently implant some technology in your body to make it be a tattoo.”

For example, you wouldn’t want to wear an EKG monitoring cap on your head all day, but if you could get tattooed with conductive materials that connect to a simple device, that could allow for continuous brainwave monitoring without ongoing discomfort.

Seeking key collaborators

The core team seeks a few more key members during this initial research phase. Carson details what expertise they seek:

Ethicist: “There are a lot of serious ethical questions about these types of technologies. We are actively looking for somebody to be a part of this and inform our team and do their own research on the ethics of this space.”

Circuits expert: “We would [also] like a circuits expert. They might be an electrical engineer—somebody who really knows how to optimize this kind of hardware. I have the expertise to make a special kind of conductive material to build the device and once you have the signals, Grace is really good at doing stuff with those. But in between those two, we need that person who can take the material and construct the exact circuit we want to get the best signal.”

Performance enhancing tattoos

Leslie is excited about the possibility of applying her expertise in neuroscience to studying wearables to enhance athletic performance. “We want to work with the CU football team to develop this augmented football player concept using control theory to figure out what the best type of feedback would be to get them in the right state. The really quick decision making they have to do for who to pass to and when, and the movements that they take, will all be optimized.”

In lieu of starting right away with permanent tattooing, the team aims to design with an even more common application in mind.

Leslie continues, “We're thinking of this being almost like a temporary tattoo. Printing a whole circuit board onto that sticker and then any components that we need to add. So it becomes this all-in-one [device] on the surface of the skin. It would be a combination of, on Carson's side, the ability to think of a completely different form factor for a circuit that involves the skin—it isn't just some standalone device that we then try to attach to the human. And then from my lab’s side, the idea of how you can provide meaningful stimulus and feedback in a way that doesn't require a screen.”

Getting into the flow

Leslie hopes to apply her background in music and audio to create novel sensory stimuli like sounds and haptic feedback (little vibrations similar to what is used in a mobile phone) in place of a screen to help guide people toward achieving a “flow state” of peak performance in a range of activities.

Leslie says, “Haptic feedback is the educational tool that helps you learn what that feels like to be in that state. The principle of biofeedback [is] that eventually if you've practiced it enough, you can reach it without the feedback and then it creates lasting changes.”

Big ideas from new connections

The initial idea for this project started when ATLAS PhD students Joshua Coffie (in the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab) and Daniel Llamas Maldonado (in the Brain Music Lab) found mutual interest in their respective research areas. Llamas Maldonado explains, “We were in the Research Methods class together, and I thought his research was really cool. We just started talking and thinking we could do something together.”

This spark speaks to the importance of fostering opportunities for cross-pollination on campus that can be supported by RIO grants.

From there, the conversation expanded to Leslie and Bruns, who catalyzed the idea by applying for the New Frontiers Grant program. This spark speaks to the importance of fostering opportunities for cross-pollination on campus that can be supported by RIO grants.

With concurrent lines of research, the key will be to focus the research in this initial phase. Leslie concludes, “It's easy to think of science fiction scenarios, but the hard part is coming up with concrete experiments to run that will be really self-contained and controlled, and that are going to prove the things that we need to prove to build the larger concept. And that is also the fun part.”

Nanomaterials and neuroscience researchers aim to build brain/body interfaces that enhance performance, improve health monitoring and support mobility.

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Image source: Adobe stock

Grace Leslie and Joel Swanson selected as Faculty Fellows

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 17:00:44 +0000

Grace Leslie and Joel Swanson selected as Faculty Fellows Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/20/2023 - 10:00

The Research & Innovation Office has announced the 2024 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort, including assistant professor Grace Leslie and associate professor Joel Swanson along with 14 other faculty members from departments and research institutes across the campus.

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The Sound of Silence

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 22:13:30 +0000

The Sound of Silence Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/10/2023 - 16:13

Grace Leslie, director of the ATLAS Institute's Brain Music Lab, is focused on the nexus between music, technology and neuroscience. She discusses how she and her students collaborate on research around non-verbal communication and empathy through the medium of music and art.

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ATLAS Institute Faculty Nationally Recognized for Radical Creativity and Invention

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 16:46:00 +0000

ATLAS Institute Faculty Nationally Recognized for Radical Creativity and Invention Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/08/2023 - 10:46

Michael Kwolek

The National Science Foundation’s CAREER award is among the most prestigious honors supporting junior faculty doing outstanding work integrating research and education toward a meaningful social impact. The CAREER award is highly competitive and is a strong indicator of future research success.

Award criteria focus on intellectual merit and broad impact—the NSF awards academic role models who have a plan to explore a body of significant research in their field. This balance of the desire to educate students within a pursuit of deep inquiry toward a purposeful goal is the signature of CAREER award winners.

At ATLAS Institute, we are proud to have had five faculty members who have received CAREER awards out of the nine so far who have been eligible. This remarkable achievement speaks to the nature of our research community as one that empowers creative engineers to bring their full selves to their work.

Ben Shapiro, Computer Science (2015): Constructing Modern and Inclusive Trajectories for Computer Science Learning
Laura Devendorf, Information Science (2020): Investigating Novel Tools and Collaborative Programs for Smart Textiles Innovation at the Intersection of Engineering and Craft
Danielle Szafir, Computer Science (2021): Developing Perceptually-Driven Tools for Estimating Visualization Effectiveness
Grace Leslie, Music (2022): Multimodal Brain and Body Music Interfaces to Promote Entrainment, Connection, and Creative Science Education
Carson Bruns, Mechanical Engineering (2023): Intradermal Biocompatibility of Nanoparticles as Minimally Invasive Implants for Human Health

ATLAS Director Mark D Gross explains faculty hiring: “Rather than saying, ‘We specifically want to hire a brain scientist,’ we say, ‘We just want to hire a really brilliant person.’ We seek applicants who are interesting to us and who are going to do great work. We believe in them.”

The power of the research

The ��ɫ��Ƶ is one of only 35 U.S. public research institutions in the Association of American Universities (AAU), a group widely recognized as America’s leading research universities. This emphasis on research undergirds everything we do at CU-Boulder overall and at ATLAS specifically.

ATLAS Institute is housed under the Research & Innovation Office at CU-Boulder, with degree programs in the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS), itself a heavily decorated and high-ranked college. ATLAS contributes to the research rigor CEAS is known for while pushing the community’s perception of where serious inquiry can spring from.

For example, recent CAREER recipient and ATLAS assistant professor of mechanical engineering, Carson Bruns, studies new ways to apply nanotechnology for improving human health—but through the lens of “smart” tattoos that can change color with UV light exposure or temperature increases. This melding of disparate lines of interest—nanoparticles, smart technology, human health and body art—seeds unique, useful discoveries traditional methods might otherwise overlook.

Why ATLAS?

So what is it exactly about ATLAS that attracts such talent? Gross says, “Those who know what we're doing tell us we have a really interesting group of people, we’re unlike a traditional department, we’re very interdisciplinary, we blend fields, we’re open to change. Those are the kind of things that attract the people we hire.”

The term “interdisciplinary” refers to work in two distinct academic fields of study. At ATLAS, we push this notion further, to expand boundaries, to cross-pollinate and change how we think about thinking—deep, focused research into highly specialized topics is essential, but equally important is our ability to investigate ideas across a wide range of fields.

ATLAS faculty have a different way of thinking about problems, one that sparks teams to come up with novel solutions. Despite this often unexpected approach, their research is grounded in the real world, in designing tangible things and in creating tools for others to expand on the core idea. Consider the work that Laura Devendorf, assistant professor of information science, undertakes in the Unstable Design Lab—she develops advanced software that opens the craft of weaving up to new possibilities of form and design, empowering artisans to push the medium forward.

We will continue to champion this expansive view of interdisciplinary research at ATLAS as a model for how polymaths can pursue research that would be unlikely to find a home in traditional settings, particularly in the fields of engineering and design. Our success in attracting CAREER-worthy talent proves the power of our approach to radical creativity.

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Can music heal? This artist and researcher wants to find out

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 18:11:39 +0000

Can music heal? This artist and researcher wants to find out Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/06/2022 - 11:11

Electronic musician, flutist and researcher Grace Leslie believes that music touches something deep in the human brain—a hardwired need, perhaps, to sit around a fire or in a concert arena and feel connected to the people around us. Humans have been making music for longer than we’ve lived in cities and grown crops. “In most cultures, it’s used to draw people together,” says Leslie.

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Electronic musician and music cognition researcher Grace Leslie joins ATLAS faculty

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 18:26:45 +0000

Electronic musician and music cognition researcher Grace Leslie joins ATLAS faculty Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/18/2022 - 12:26

The ATLAS Institute and the College of Music are delighted to welcome Grace Leslie to the ��ɫ��Ƶ faculty this fall as an assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute with a tenure home in the College of Music. Leslie is an electronic musician and music cognition researcher committed to harnessing the expression granted by new music interfaces to better understand the link between music and emotion. Ultimately, she aims to employ musical brain-computer interfaces to promote wellness.

Leslie comes to ATLAS from Georgia Tech, where she established the Brain-Music Lab and served as an assistant professor of music technology. She recently received a prestigious CAREER award, which the National Science Foundation grants to early-career faculty who have demonstrated the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. As director of the ATLAS Brain-Music Lab, she aims to continue expanding this groundbreaking field of research.

Before joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Leslie completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Affective Computing Group at the MIT Media Lab, developing music neurofeedback systems for creative and therapeutic applications. She earned her PhD in Music and Cognitive Science from University of California San Diego, where she studied the expressive movements and brain dynamics supporting music engagement at the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience. She’s worked on psychoacoustic research and interactive sound installation projects at IRCAM in Paris, and Audio DSP and User Experience design projects for Sennheiser, Kyocera, and Motorola.

Grace Leslie's website

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