Laurel Trainor

Prof. Laurel Trainor
Professor of Psychology,
Neuroscience and Behaviour,
McMaster University, Canada;
Tier 1 Canada Research Chair.

Laurel Trainor is a Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University, and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. She is a Research Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a McMaster Distinguished University Professor. Her recognitions include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and a Woman of Distinction Award from the YWCA.

Prof. Trainor directs the Auditory Development Lab (https://trainorlab.mcmaster.ca/) and has published over 190 articles in journals including Science and Nature on the neuroscience of auditory development and the perception of music, including work on pitch, tonality, timing, rhythm, neuroplasticity, and the role of music in social interaction and developmental disorders. She co-holds a patent for the Neuro-compensator hearing aid.

She has held major grants, including from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Science Research Council of Canada, la Fondation de l’Audition, and the Grammy Foundation. She is also the founding and present director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind (MIMM), which houses the LIVELab (https://livelab.mcmaster.ca/), a unique research-concert hall with high acoustic control, that is equipped with multi-person motion capture and EEG for studying how performers and audiences interact, and how music can be used to promote health and well-being. Laurel also has a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Toronto, enjoys chamber music, and is principal flute of the Burlington Symphony Orchestra.