People_
Dr Steffen A. Herff
Sydney Horizon Fellow
ARC DECRA Fellow
Leader of the Sydney Music, Mind, and Body Lab
ARC DECRA Fellow
Leader of the Sydney Music, Mind, and Body Lab
Phone
+61 2 93511233
Address
C41 - Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The University of Sydney
Websites
Dr. Steffen A. Herff is a cognitive neuroscientist and the leader of the Sydney Music, Mind, and Body Lab. He holds a prestigious Sydney Horizon Research Fellowship as well as an ARC DECRA. His research is situated at the intersection between Music, Imagination, Information Sampling, as well as Biofeedback and Neuroscience. He investigates how humans perceive and process music, how music can be used to support well-being, and how we can help musicians avoid musculoskeletal disorders.
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- Music Perception & Cognition
- Memory
- Imagination
- Statistics & Experimental Design
- Cognitive Science
- Biofeedback
- Neuroscience
Current and past supervised students:
PhD
- 2024Supervision.Miriam Olsen’s PhD, USYD, Australia
- 2023Supervision.Fernando Castellar’s PhD, WSU/USYD, Australia
- 2023Supervision.Ade Syarifa’s PhD,WSU/USYD, Australia
- 2023Supervision.Mustafa Ugûr Kayas’ PhD, WSU/USYD, Australia
- 2023Supervision.Ceren Ayyildiz’s PhD,WSU/USYD, Australia
- 2023Supervision.Alejandro Escuder’s PhD,Valencia Polytechnic University, Spain
- 2022Examiner.Jolene Cox. Australian National University, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Gabriele Cecchetti’s PhD,EPFL, Switzerland
- 2018Advisor.Kumaresh Son OfDarmalingam’s PhD,NTU, Singapore
Master-/Bachelor Theses
- 2024 Supervision.Justine Wesley Bachelor (Honours), MU, Australia
- 2023Supervision.Joanna Delalande Bachelor (Honours), MU, Australia
- 2023Supervision.Huazhe Lee’s Master Thesis, Tsinghua University, China
- 2022Supervision.Shourodip Chatterjee's Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2022Supervision.Alena Hoshiarpur's’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2022Supervision.O'Brien'’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2022Supervision.Kate Sanders’ Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2022Supervision.Rhiannon White’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2022Supervision.Shania Spokes’s Bachelor Thesis (Honours),MU, Australia
- 2022Supervision.Clémentine Lévy-Fidel, Semester Project, EPFL, Switzerland
- 2021Supervision.Cédric Alexandre Tomasini’s Master Thesis, EPFL, Switzerland
- 2021Supervision.Isobel Youngs’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2021Supervision.Sophie McConnell’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2021Supervision.John Lekias’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2021Supervision.Zachary Kirkby’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2021Supervision.Stephen Bellair’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2020Supervision.Zane Spalding’s Bachelor Thesis (Honours),MU, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Nur Asyilah Wahid’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Christopher Poastor’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Lewis Dickson’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Erica Wong’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Jessina Oakes’s Bachelor Thesis,MU, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Ina Dorsheimer’s Bachelor Thesis (Honours),MU, Australia
- 2019Supervision.Tabitha Wood’s Bachelor Thesis (Honours),MU, Australia
- 2018Supervision.Stefanie Kloos’ Master Thesis,HHU, Germany
- 2017Supervision.Niklas Wessendorf’s Bachelor Thesis,HHU, Germany
- 2017External Advisor.Farrah Sa’Abdullah’s Master Thesis,WSU, Australia
- 2016Supervision.Nicki Colley’s Bachelor Thesis (Honours),WSU, Australia
His current research is situated at the intersection between Music, Imagination, Information Sampling, as well as Biofeedback and Neuroscience and are primarily concerned with:
- Fundamental auditory memory, learning, and perception research
- Modelling of auditory information sampling in ageing and mood disorders
- Empirically investigating how musical features affect imagination
- Developing biofeedback systems to help musicians avoid musculoskeletal disorders
- Combining music and mental imagery to support performance and alleviate anxiety in musicians and high performance atheletes
- Modelling interactions between musical co-performers
- Creation of new compositional tools
- Non-invasive (e.g., EEG, MEG) and invasive brain imaging (e.g., ECoG) in musical rhythm perception as well as brain stimulation to modulate memory encoding of auditory stimuli.
Selected awards:
- Grant. Arnold Bentley New Initiatives Fund by the Society for Education, Music, and Psychology Research,‘Fear and Pain in Musicians: Exploring the role of psychological factors in the development and maintenance of musicians' performance-related pain’(2024)
- Research Fellowship.Sydney Horizon Fellowship,‘Sustainable Health Practise – Music for Health & Health for Musicians’(2024)
- Grant.Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme from UA-DAAD,‘Solitary Silence & Social Sounds: Using music to alleviate feelings of loneliness in older adults’ (2023)
- Grant. CEPET Seed Grant, 'The effect of task-irrelevant music on cognition: Do musical expertise and preferences act as moderators?' (2022)
- Grant. Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council,'The Musical Escape: Investigating Music and Imagination'(2021)
- Grant. SPARK grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation for the project,'Wanderful music, 'A systematic investigation into music-induced mind wandering'(2020)
- Grant. CEPET Seed Grant,'Memory as a proxy for perceptual expertise, 'Testing a novel Regenerative-Multiple-Representation model of memory'(2018)
- Grant.Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme from UA-DAAD,‘The noisy ear; the influence of background noise on day-to-day listening’(2017)
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| The Effects of Timbre and Rhythm on Music-Induced Mental Imagery | Ceren AYYILDIZ |
| Using music to support the efficacy of mental imagery in high performance sports | Fernando DANTAS CASTELLAR |
| Music-facilitated Mental Imagery to Improve Well-being | Ade FATHIAWATI |
| Movement Efficiency in Violinists: Developing a new Tool for Injury Prevention | Miriam OLSEN |
Publications
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Journals
- Herff, S., Bonetti, L., Cecchetti, G., Vuust, P., Kringelbach, M., Rohrmeier, M. (2024). Hierarchical syntax model of music predicts theta power during music listening. Neuropsychologia, 199, 108905. [More Information]
- Breaden Madden, G., Herff, S., Beveridge, S., Jabusch, H. (2024). Musicians’ pursuit of expertise-related goals is characterised by strategic regulation of functional and counterproductive affect. Frontiers in Psychology, 15(1407303). [More Information]
- Fairley, L., Grimm, A., Herff, S., Eckert, A. (2024). Translocator protein (TSPO) ligands attenuate mitophagy deficits in the SH-SY5Y cellular model of Alzheimer's disease via the autophagy adaptor P62. Biochimie. [More Information]
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Conferences
- Cecchetti, G., Herff, S., Rohrmeier, M. (2021). Musical syntactic structure improves memory for melody: evidence from the processing of ambiguous melodies. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Online: EScholarship. [More Information]
- Beveridge, S., Herff, S., Cano, E. (2020). Degradation effects of water immersion on earbud audio quality. 149th International AES Show, Engineering Society, Online: Audio Engineering Society. [More Information]
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2024
- Herff, S., Bonetti, L., Cecchetti, G., Vuust, P., Kringelbach, M., Rohrmeier, M. (2024). Hierarchical syntax model of music predicts theta power during music listening. Neuropsychologia, 199, 108905. [More Information]
- Breaden Madden, G., Herff, S., Beveridge, S., Jabusch, H. (2024). Musicians’ pursuit of expertise-related goals is characterised by strategic regulation of functional and counterproductive affect. Frontiers in Psychology, 15(1407303). [More Information]
- Fairley, L., Grimm, A., Herff, S., Eckert, A. (2024). Translocator protein (TSPO) ligands attenuate mitophagy deficits in the SH-SY5Y cellular model of Alzheimer's disease via the autophagy adaptor P62. Biochimie. [More Information]
2023
- Breaden Madden, G., Herff, S., Beveridge, S., Jabusch, H. (2023). Emotional cherry picking: The role of personality and goal orientation in selective emotion regulation for musical practice. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1201442. [More Information]
- Cecchetti, G., Herff, S., Finkensiep, C., Harasim, D., Rohrmeier, M. (2023). Hearing functional harmony in jazz: A perceptual study of music-theoretical accounts of extended tonality. Musicae Scientiae, 27(3), 672-697. [More Information]
- Herff, S., Dorsheimer, I., Dahmen, B., Prince, J. (2023). Information Processing Biases: The Effects of Negative Emotional Symptoms on Sampling Pleasant and Unpleasant Information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 29(2), 259-279. [More Information]
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2022
- Herff, S., McConnell, S., Ji, J., Prince, J. (2022). Eye closure interacts with music to influence vividness and content of directed imagery. Music and Science, 5, 1-14. [More Information]
- Cecchetti, G., Herff, S., Rohrmeier, M. (2022). Musical garden paths: Evidence for syntactic revision beyond the linguistic domain. Cognitive Science, 46(7). [More Information]
- Beveridge, S., Cano, E., Herff, S. (2022). The effect of low-frequency equalisation on preference and sensorimotor synchronisation in music. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75(3), 475-490. [More Information]
2021
- Herff, S., Cecchetti, G., Taruffi, L., Déguernel, K. (2021). Music influences vividness and content of imagined journeys in a directed visual imagery task. Scientific Reports, 11, 15990. [More Information]
- Cecchetti, G., Herff, S., Rohrmeier, M. (2021). Musical syntactic structure improves memory for melody: evidence from the processing of ambiguous melodies. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Online: EScholarship. [More Information]
- Schaal, N., Kloos, S., Pollok, B., Herff, S. (2021). The influence of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the right auditory cortex on interference effects in memory for melodies. Brain and Cognition, 154(105798), 1-10. [More Information]
2020
- Herff, S., Zhen, S., Yu, R., Agres, K. (2020). Age-Dependent Statistical Learning Trajectories Reveal Differences in Information Weighting. Psychology and Aging, 35(8), 1090-1104. [More Information]
- Herff, S., Dean, R., Schaal, N. (2020). Context effects of background babbling on memory for melodies. Musicae Scientiae, 24(1), 96-112. [More Information]
- Beveridge, S., Herff, S., Cano, E. (2020). Degradation effects of water immersion on earbud audio quality. 149th International AES Show, Engineering Society, Online: Audio Engineering Society. [More Information]
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2019
- Herff, S., Olsen, K., Anic, A., Schaal, N. (2019). Investigating cumulative disruptive interference in memory for melodies, words, and pictures. New Ideas in Psychology, 55, 68-77. [More Information]
- Herff, S., Czernochowski, D. (2019). The role of divided attention and expertise in melody recognition. Musicae Scientiae, 23(1), 69-86. [More Information]
2018
- MacRitchie, J., Herff, S., Procopio, A., Keller, P. (2018). Negotiating between individual and joint goals in ensemble musical performance. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71(7), 1535-1551. [More Information]
2017
- Herff, S., Dean, R., Olsen, K. (2017). Interrater agreement in memory for melody as a measure of listeners’ similarity in music perception. Psychomusicology, 27(4), 297-311. [More Information]
Selected Grants
2024
- Sustainable Health Practice: Music for Health and Health for Musicians, Herff S, Herff S, DVC Research/Sydney Horizon Fellowship
In the media
Selected recent media items:
- ABC: 'Why musical memories from childhood are so strong'
- The Guardian:'Worried about your child's transition from daycare to 'big school'? Music can make it easier
- ABC News: How to optimise your study session with music
- Nature News: Don't fade away: memory for music persists with age
- ABC: New research helps unlock the secret of flow, an important tool for creative and problem solving tasks
- ABC: The intricate relationship between music and memory
- ABC: Using the power of music through your wellbeing journey
- USYD: Sydney attracts top research talent with innovative fellowships
- Australian Financial Review: Westmead Health Precinct moves into big league to lure researchers
- TheConversation: How a little mathematics can help create some beautiful music