What is ACN?

Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience (ACN) is the scientific study of how people think about or respond to sound, with a focus on the relationship between auditory behaviour (hearing, imagining, or making sound) and the neural substrates of the mental processes involved. Examples include recognizing a phone ring, understanding speech in noise, listening to music, or imagining a parent’s voice. ACN is the research discipline that contributes to the understanding and creation of models of auditory brain function and dysfunction, including tinnitus, tone deafness, stuttering, aphasias, amusias, and auditory processing disorders. The brain's response to sound has a profound impact on related health areas including attention, memory, mood, and motor rehabilitation, as well as informing general models of neural plasticity and development. These recent developments highlight the need for interdisciplinary training in ACN across natural and health sciences, to benefit fields ranging from audio engineering and communications technology to medical imaging and stroke recovery.