“It’s a whole different experience being online,” Bonnema said. Only meeting in person a few times before the shutdowns began last March, the two successfully adjusted to the challenge of completing their research online via Zoom. The pair began working on the poster last year, studying thousands of narratives written by at least 200 participants, Mehta said.Īnd they didn’t let the COVID-19 pandemic slow them down. “We have a few narratives where we see that a music piece makes some from one country feel happy and positive but make others from a different county feel sad, angry or remorseful.” “When different cultures listen to the same music piece, their perceptions of it can differ,” said Mehta, who is a junior majoring in biology in Lyman Briggs College, neuroscience in the College of Natural Science and German in the College of Arts and Letters. It examines a phenomenon that explains how people use narratives to understand and interpret music and how different cultures piece together different narratives based on the same music piece. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation and highlights the connection between music, neuroscience and narrative cognition. “We’re very passionate about it, so I think it’s going to be a really exciting thing to share with people.” “It’s a big deal to speak to representatives and government officials about the research we’ve been doing here,” said Bonnema, who is a junior majoring in human biology in Lyman Briggs College.

This year, 60 undergraduate researchers were selected from hundreds of applicants to present their research to members of Congress, congressional staffers, federal government officials, academics and others.īonnema and Mehta will present their poster, “Narrative Processing of Music: How Culture Influences Our Perception of Music,” at the two-day, virtual event. This annual event celebrates student researchers, providing them the opportunity to showcase their exemplary research and advocate for undergraduate research on Capitol Hill.

Two MSU undergraduate students - Grace Bonnema and Tushya Mehta - were selected to present their research at the Council on Undergraduate Research’s 2021 Posters on the Hill event April 27-28.

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