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Stefan Koelsch

Stefan Koelsch

Award Badge
Neuroscience
Norway
2026
Award Badge
Psychology
Norway
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Neuroscience

D-Index
88
Citations
30271
World Ranking
1199
National Ranking
8

Psychology

D-Index
88
Citations
30261
World Ranking
1032
National Ranking
5

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Neuroscience in Norway Leader Award
  • 2026 - Research.com Psychology in Norway Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Neuroscience in Norway Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Psychology in Norway Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Psychology in Norway Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Neuroscience in Norway Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Psychology in Norway Leader Award

Overview

Stefan Koelsch is affiliated with the University of Bergen in Norway and has contributed extensively to research exploring the intersection of music and neuroscience. Their work spans multiple domains within neuroscience and psychology, with a focus on how music impacts brain function and emotional processing.

Koelsch's research primarily covers the following fields of study:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology

They specialize in several subfields, including:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Social Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental Health
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

The main topics addressed by their research include:

  • Neuroscience and Music Perception
  • Music Therapy and Health
  • Neural Dynamics and Brain Function
  • Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Diverse Music Education Insights
  • Multisensory Perception and Integration
  • Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Recent notable publications by Stefan Koelsch include:

  • A coordinate-based meta-analysis of music-evoked emotions, 2020, NeuroImage
  • Neocortical substrates of feelings evoked with music in the ACC, insula, and somatosensory cortex, 2021, Scientific Reports

Koelsch often collaborates with several frequent co-authors, including:

  • Stavros Skouras
  • Anna Maria Matziorinis
  • Sebastian Jentschke
  • Christian Gold
  • Birthe Kristin Flo

The scientist has published multiple articles in established journals and venues such as:

  • PLoS ONE
  • Research Square
  • Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
  • Scientific Reports
  • bioRxiv

Best Publications

  • Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions

    Stefan Koelsch

  • Investigating emotion with music: an fMRI study.

    Stefan Koelsch;Thomas Fritz;D. Yves von Cramon;Karsten Müller

  • Musical syntax is processed in Broca's area: An MEG study.

    Burkhard Maess;Stefan Koelsch;Thomas C. Gunter;Angela D. Friederici

  • Towards a neural basis of music perception

    Stefan Koelsch;Walter A. Siebel

  • Towards a neural basis of music-evoked emotions

    Stefan Koelsch

  • Universal Recognition of Three Basic Emotions in Music

    Thomas Hans Fritz;Sebastian Jentschke;Nathalie Gosselin;Daniela Sammler

  • Music, language and meaning: brain signatures of semantic processing

    Stefan Koelsch;Elisabeth Kasper;Daniela Sammler;Katrin Schulze

  • Music and emotion: electrophysiological correlates of the processing of pleasant and unpleasant music.

    Daniela Sammler;Maren Grigutsch;Thomas Fritz;Stefan Koelsch

  • Brain Indices of Music Processing: Nonmusicians are Musical

    Stefan Koelsch;Tomas Gunter;Angela D. Friederici;Erich Schröger

  • Bach speaks: a cortical "language-network" serves the processing of music.

    Stefan Koelsch;Thomas C. Gunter;D. Yves von Cramon;Stefan Zysset

  • Toward a Neural Basis of Music Perception: A Review and Updated Model

    Stefan Koelsch

  • Adults and children processing music: An fMRI study

    Stefan Koelsch;Thomas Fritz;Katrin Schulze;David C. Alsop

  • Predictive Processes and the Peculiar Case of Music.

    Stefan Koelsch;Peter Vuust;Karl Friston

  • Superior Pre-Attentive Auditory Processing in Musicians

    Stefan Koelsch;Erich Schröger;Mari Tervaniemi

  • The Role of Harmonic Expectancy Violations in Musical Emotions: Evidence from Subjective, Physiological, and Neural Responses

    Nikolaus Steinbeis;Stefan Koelsch;John A. Sloboda

  • Interaction between Syntax Processing in Language and in Music: An ERP Study

    Stefan Koelsch;Thomas C. Gunter;Matthias Wittfoth;Daniela Sammler

  • Brain and Music

    Stefan Koelsch

  • A neuroscientific perspective on music therapy.

    Stefan Koelsch

  • Pitch discrimination accuracy in musicians vs nonmusicians: an event-related potential and behavioral study.

    Mari Tervaniemi;Mari Tervaniemi;Viola Just;Stefan Koelsch;Andreas Widmann

  • Functional specializations for music processing in the human newborn brain

    Daniela Perani;Maria Cristina Saccuman;Paola Scifo;Danilo Spada

  • Report Universal Recognition of Three Basic Emotions in Music

    Thomas Fritz;Sebastian Jentschke;Nathalie Gosselin;Daniela Sammler

Frequent Co-Authors

Angela D. Friederici
Angela D. Friederici Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Thomas C. Gunter
Thomas C. Gunter Max Planck Society
Erich Schröger
Erich Schröger Leipzig University
Arthur M. Jacobs
Arthur M. Jacobs Freie Universität Berlin
Joydeep Bhattacharya
Joydeep Bhattacharya Goldsmiths University of London
Thomas Jacobsen
Thomas Jacobsen Helmut Schmidt University
Luciano Fadiga
Luciano Fadiga Italian Institute of Technology
Lars Kuchinke
Lars Kuchinke International Psychoanalytic University Berlin
Mari Tervaniemi
Mari Tervaniemi University of Helsinki
Robert T. Knight
Robert T. Knight University of California, Berkeley

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