OTTORINO ROSSI AWARD 2026 (OTTR/26)

Robert ZATORRE studies the neural substrate for auditory cognition, with special
emphasis on two complex and characteristically human abilities: speech and music.
He has published over 300 scientific papers on topics including pitch perception,
auditory imagery, absolute pitch, perception of auditory space, and the role of the
mesolimbic reward circuitry in mediating musical pleasure. His research – making use
of functional and structural MRI, MEG and EEG, as well as brain stimulation
techniques, – spans all aspects of human auditory processing, from studying the
functional and structural properties of auditory cortices, to how these properties
differs between the hemispheres, and how they change with training or sensory loss.
In 2006 he founded the international laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound research
(BRAMS), a unique multi-university consortium dedicated to the cognitive
neuroscience of music. In 2011 he was awarded the IPSEN foundation prize in
neuronal plasticity. In 2013, he won the Knowles prize in hearing research from
Northwestern University, and in 2017 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada.
In 2020, he was awarded the C.L. de Carvalho-Heineken Prize in Cognitive Sciences,
the most prestigious international science prize in The Netherlands.