REMEMUS

Memory processes are modulated by dopamine-dependent reward responses. One of the most pleasurable stimuli of our life, strongly dependent on the dopaminergic reward system, is music. This project will pursue three main objectives: 1) providing evidence for the benefits of musical reward on memory for non-musical, verbal material; 2) enhancing the musical pleasure, and consequently memory performance, via shared musical experience in an ecological paradigm; 3) exploring these effects in real-life naturalistic setting, namely experimentally-controlled concert hall. To these aims, in three main work packages we will collect behavioural, psychophysiological and neural (via individual and hyperscanning fNIRS) evidence. Findings resulting from this timely innovative project will substantially enhance our understanding about on how reward drives memory improvements, thus having important implications for clinical and pedagogical interventions.