Makiko Sadakata
Music Cognition & Neuroscience

Makiko
Sadakata

I study how the mind makes sense of sound — from the moment a repeated phrase crosses into melody, to the predictions we form about musical structure and form. My research is at the intersection of music cognition, psycholinguistics, and neuroscience, and is based at the Department of Musicology and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), University of Amsterdam.

私は、ヒトがどのように音を理解するのかに興味があります。なぜ繰り返しが音楽的な印象を生むのか、音楽の構造や形式をどのように予測しながら聴いているのか―そういった問いを、音楽認知・心理言語学・神経科学の視点から研究しています。アムステルダム大学音楽学科、およびInstitute for Logic, Language and Computationを拠点としています。科学2026年4月号(岩波書店)に「脳は音楽と言語をどのように聞き分けているのか」という記事を寄稿しました。

Ik onderzoek hoe de geest betekenis geeft aan geluid — van het moment waarop een herhaalde zin overgaat in melodie, tot de voorspellingen die we vormen over muzikale structuur en vorm. Mijn onderzoek bevindt zich op het snijvlak van muziekcognitie, psycholinguïstiek en neurowetenschappen, en is gevestigd bij de afdeling Musicologie en het Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) van de Universiteit van Amsterdam.

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Education
Teaching
MA Music Studies Coordinator, University of Amsterdam
How Rhythm Works
BA · Musicology, University of Amsterdam
BA
Cognitive Musicology
BA · Musicology, University of Amsterdam
BA
How Music Works: Inside the Musical Mind
MA · Music Studies, University of Amsterdam
MA

Course links will be added when Studiegids 2026–27 is published. UvA Studiegids →

People
Principal Investigator
Makiko Sadakata
Associate Professor · Department of Musicology & ILLC, University of Amsterdam
Master's Students 2025–26
Babis Deij
Acoustic analysis of poetry
Berta Beļicka
The Effects of Linguistic Background on Musical Ability
Coen van Baalen
Unraveling components underlying musical memory: a musical matching game for children
Nienke Derksen
Perceiving Rhythmic Complexity: How Predictability, Tempo and Repetition Shape its Subjective Experience
Meryem Kaya
Speech to song illusion with attention
Elke van Kooij
Validation of the Speech to Song Game for children aged 4–9
Internship · MBCS
Noor van der Veen
When Familiarity Fades: Preference and Boredom in Repeated Listening