Lab Introduction & Major Research Interests
With research interests located at the intersection between the natural sciences and the performing arts, I conducted research on the physics of musical instruments and the physiological/emotional responses to Chinese opera and other performing arts, as well as on the cognitive neuroscience of music. My book, Alternative Watching/Listening: Brain Diseases and Voice Disorders in Performing Arts, draws together medical and musical sources to make sense of the artistic depictions of disease manifestation in social and historical contexts. I also used fMRI and MEG to explore the neural substrates underlying cognitive and emotional processing of music.
Recent Representative Publication ( * corresponding author)
1. Tsai, C.G., & Li, C.W.* (2019). Is it speech or song? Effect of melody priming on pitch perception of modified Mandarin speech. Brain Sciences 9(10):286. [SCI, IF=2.786]
2. Li, C.W., Cheng, T.H., & Tsai, C.G.* (2019). Music enhances activity in the hypothalamus, brainstem, and anterior cerebellum during script-driven imagery of affective scenes. Neuropsychologia 133:107073. [SCI/SSCI, IF=2.889]
3. Tsai, C.G., Chou T.L., & Li, C.W.* (2018). Roles of posterior parietal and dorsal premotor cortices in relative pitch processing: comparing musical intervals to lexical tones. Neuropsychologia 119:118-127. [SCI, IF=2.888]
4. Tsai, C.G.*, & Chen, R.S. (2017). Structures and emotions in Chinese sentimental ballads: a perspective of cognitive psychology (in Chinese). Taipei: Faces Publishing LTD.
5. Li, C.W., Chen, J.H., & Tsai, C.G.* (2015). Listening to music in a risk-reward context: the roles of the temporoparietal junction and the orbitofrontal/insular cortices in reward-anticipation, reward-gain, and reward-loss. Brain Research 1629:160-170. [SCI, IF=2.988]
6. Tsai, C.G., Chen, C.C., Wen, Y.C., & Chou T.L.* (2015). Neuromagnetic brain activities associated with perceptual categorization and sound-content incongruency: a comparison of music and speech. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9:455. [SCI, IF=3.626]
7. Tsai, C.G. (2013). The cognitive psychology of music (in Chinese). Taipei: NTU Press.
8. Tsai, C.G., Fan, L.Y., Lee, S.H., Chen, J.H., and Chou, T.L.* (2012). Specialization of the posterior temporal lobes for audio-motor processing – evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of skilled drummers. European Journal of Neuroscience 35(4):634–643. [SCI, IF=3.658]