Cognitive Neuroscience of Music
Yune Sang Lee, Ph.D.
이윤상
Research Professor · Seoul National University Brain Imaging Center
Computational Clinical Science Lab
I study how music influences human cognition and physiological responses, with particular attention to preventing its potential from being overstated or reduced to pseudoscience. Drawing on neuroimaging and behavioral science, I explore for whom, under what conditions, and to what extent music and sound may be useful. My aim is to translate meaningful possibilities into real-world value that people can trust.
About
I am a cognitive neuroscientist studying how music, rhythm, and sound shape human cognition, communication, and physiological responses. My work connects fundamental questions about the brain with the development of evidence-informed sound applications that may support rehabilitation, cognitive and emotional health, and everyday functioning. I am now particularly interested in translating carefully tested principles of sound into tools and environments that can be evaluated in real-world settings.
I studied biology at Yonsei University, then trained at Dartmouth (Ph.D., Cognitive Neuroscience) and the University of Pennsylvania. I then led the SLAM (Speech, Language, and Music) Lab for nine years at The Ohio State University and The University of Texas at Dallas, before returning to Seoul in 2025. Along the way my lab has been supported by the NIH, the NSF, the Parkinson's Foundation, and industry partners in the US, Korea, and Japan.
I played guitar in bands from my university years, and after graduating worked as a music director at an advertising-music studio. Those years are not incidental to the research — they are most of the reason for it.
Research
Rhythm-based neurorehabilitation
If rhythm and language share resources, rhythm can be a route back into language. I test rhythm video-game therapy for aphasia and drum-and-dance programs for Parkinson's disease, and measure what changes in the brain when they work.
Digital sound therapy
Binaural beats and immersive 3D audio as non-invasive neuromodulation — for sentence comprehension in healthy listeners, for children with developmental language disorder, and for patients with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease.
Music and language skills in children
How a child handles rhythm and speech sound is bound up with how that child learns to read. In children with dyslexia, I establish what auditory and rhythmic processing contribute to reading difficulty, and help design assessments that measure phonological, auditory, visual, and cognitive components together. Neuroimaging is how I measure the effects of rhythm-based training in these children.
Protective effects of music in aging
Older musicians do not hear better, yet they follow speech in noise better than their peers. Since hearing loss raises dementia risk, the question is whether musical experience builds enough cognitive reserve to offset that cost. I use neuroimaging to look for the traces musical experience leaves in the aging brain, and to test whether training can still produce change late in life.
Selected publications
- Kim, J.H., Kim, H-W., Kovar, J., Lee, Y.S. (2024). Neural consequences of binaural beat stimulation on auditory sentence comprehension: an EEG study. Cerebral Cortex. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhad459
- Kim, H-W., Kovar, J., Bajwa, J.S., Miran, Y., Ahmad, A., Moreno, M.M., Price, T.J., Lee, Y.S. (2024). Rhythmic motor behavior explains individual differences in grammar skills in adults. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-53382-9
- Kim, H-W., Lee, K., Lee, Y.S. (2023). Sensorimotor and working memory systems jointly support development of perceptual rhythm processing. Developmental Science, 26(1), e13261.
- Lee, Y.S., Rogers, C., Min, N.E., Wingfield, A., Grossman, M., Peelle, J.E. (2022). Neural compensation supporting successful speech comprehension in normal aging. Aging Brain, 2, 100051.
- Heard, M.J. & Lee, Y.S. (2020). Shared neural resources of rhythm and grammar: an ALE meta-analysis. Neuropsychologia, 137, 107284.
- Lee, Y.S., Ahn, S.H., Holt, R.F., Schellenberg, G. (2020). Rhythm and syntax processing in school-age children. Developmental Psychology, 56(9), 1632–1641.
- Lee, Y.S., Wingfield, A., Min, N.E., Kotloff, E., Grossman, M., Peelle, J.E. (2018). Differences in hearing acuity among "normal-hearing" young adults modulate the neural basis for speech comprehension. eNeuro, 0263-17.2018.
- Lee, Y.S., Turkeltaub, P.E., Granger, R.H., Raizada, R.D.S. (2012). Categorical speech processing in Broca's area. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(11), 3942–3948.
- Lee, Y.S., Janata, P., Frost, C., Hanke, M., Granger, R.H. (2011). Investigation of melodic contour processing in the brain using pattern-based fMRI. NeuroImage, 57(1), 293–300.
Full list on Google Scholar. Book chapters in the Oxford Handbook on Music and the Brain (2019) and Music Therapy & Music-Based Interventions in Neurology (Springer Nature, 2024).
Positions & training
- 2025 –
- Seoul National UniversityResearch Professor, SNU Brain Imaging Center / Computational Clinical Science Lab
- 2020 – 2025
- The University of Texas at DallasAssistant Professor, Speech, Language, and Hearing · Callier Center & Center for BrainHealth
- 2016 – 2020
- The Ohio State UniversityAssistant Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences · Chronic Brain Injury Discovery Theme
- 2011 – 2016
- University of PennsylvaniaPostdoctoral Fellow, Neurology & Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
- 2005 – 2010
- Dartmouth CollegePh.D., Cognitive Neuroscience · Psychological and Brain Sciences
- 2003 – 2005
- T.K.B Commercial Music StudioMusic Director
- 2002 – 2003
- Samsung CapitalPublic Relations Officer
- 2001
- Yonsei UniversityB.S., Biology · Department of Biology (now Systems Biology)
Selected funding & recognition
- NIH / NIDCD R21 — Neural mechanisms of language recovery through rhythm gaming therapy in aphasia (PI)
- NSF TRIPODS+X — MBI TGDA + Neuro program for undergraduates (MPI) · featured on the NSF website front page
- Shimadzu Scientific Instruments — fNIRS for speech, language, and music research (PI)
- Neuroscience Innovation Foundation — Research support for the SLAM Lab (PI)
- The Parkinson's Foundation — Drum Dance Rehabilitation for Parkinson's disease (PI)
- Media coverage in US News & World Report, Healthline, Neuroscience News, and MBC News Desk
- Director of Scientific Affairs, Korean Society for Music Perception & Cognition; and The Society for Clinical Music Science Research
Get in touch
I'm open to collaborations on auditory neuroscience, music-based intervention, and clinical translation of sound therapy — and to speaking invitations. Students and postdocs interested in the lab are welcome to write.