On the Edge: Emerging Scholars
On The Edge: Emerging Scholars is a speaker series featuring cutting-edge research presented by emerging scholars and researchers from Edmonton's academic community. Presented by the University of Alberta's Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies (GPS) and Edmonton Public Library (EPL), these sessions take place monthly at the Strathcona Library Branch. All are welcome to attend and explore the forefront of academic discovery with us!
The Music of Unconscious Brain Activity
Tuesday, March 31, 2026 | 7 - 8:30 p.m. MT | Online (Zoom)
Our unconscious brains emit a symphony of silent electrical waves, reverberating throughout different regions and interacting to encode, transfer, and store our daily experiences. Over the past century, our understanding of how these waves are emitted and their functional roles in neural processing has grown immensely. Moreover, technological advances have given us the ability to detect diverse kinds of brain rhythms, from a wide range of frequencies and from neural connections formed within microscopic areas. However, the patterns that these waves form together during unconscious processing is not fully understood. Here, I present and discuss the work I have done here at the U of A to convert these silent waves to audible tones, the music which they manifest, and the relevance of these harmonic and melodic features to neural processing during sleep and other states of unconsciousness.
About the Presenter:
Mitchell Prostebby is a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at the University of Alberta. He holds a BSc. from the University of Calgary and a MSc. from McGill University. Over the course of his training, he has received numerous research awards for his work investigating the effects of electrical fields on brain cell activity, and the encoding strategies cells use to process our everyday experience. His PhD research currently focuses on how cells within the brain cooperate to produce rhythmic patterns, especially during unconsciousness, which help stabilize our memories into long-term storage.
Contact Us
Jay Friesen, Ph.D.
Academic Program Officer
Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
Email: jayf@ualberta.ca
