Dr. Elise Piazza, Principal Investigator

Elise is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Brain & Cognitive Sciences and Neuroscience at the University of Rochester. She completed her B.A. at Williams College, her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and her postdoctoral training as a C. V. Starr Fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Her research focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of human auditory perception and communication across the lifespan, including how musicians coordinate during performance, how musical training impacts the hierarchical organization of sounds in the brain, and how listeners compute statistical summary (or “gist”) representations of complex sounds. Outside of the lab, Elise can be found playing the piano/clarinet/sax/ukulele, strategy board games, or Dungeons & Dragons.

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Dr. Sarah Izen, Postdoctoral Researcher

Sarah received her B.A. from Smith College, her M.A. from Boston University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is interested in the development of sensory systems, how information from multiple senses is combined in the brain, and how early life experience, such as early musical training, influences cortical structure and functional connectivity in adulthood. Her dissertation focused on the role of attention in the way emotional sounds affect the judgement of emotional faces in both children and adults. When not in the lab, Sarah can be found searching for new restaurants, playing and listening to music, and adventuring with her husband and two dogs.

Qingzhi (Ruby) Zeng, Graduate Student

Ruby received her B.A. in Psychology and Music in 2020 from Bryn Mawr College. She has been playing the violin since she was nine years old and has been actively performing in chamber ensembles and orchestra. She is fascinated by the science behind musical activities and their roles in human cognition and perception. One of the topics that she is most interested in exploring is improvisation as a means of communication and a type of creativity among young children in the domain of both music and language. Outside of academia, she enjoys diary writing, binge watching Criminal Minds, and exercising. She is from Shenzhen, China.

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Riesa Cassano-Coleman, Graduate Student

Riesa received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Princeton. She is interested in how the brain processes music, especially while playing music - alone or with others. She is also interested in the interaction of music and memory and how the brain changes with aging and dementia. Riesa is currently a part of the women’s rowing team, and enjoys playing the oboe and hiking in her free time.

Qiyuan Feng, Undergraduate Student

Qiyuan is a sophomore majoring in Brain and Cognitive Science and Computer Science with a minor in Social Psychology. She is interested in human perception and cognition, especially during communication and social interaction. She also hopes to explore how computational theoretical models would give explanations to language and music perception. Outside of school, she enjoys watching movies, drawing, and doing visual designs.