All evidence indicates that music plays a significant role in every human society, both past and present. When we gather to celebrate, rejoice or mourn, music moves us in powerful ways. Caregivers around the world sing to infants to soothe, play with, and teach them. And yet we are just starting to uncover the profound impact music has on our brain, our emotions and our health.

Every musician knows the answer to that age-old riddle 'how do you get to Carnegie Hall?' The answer of course is 'practice'. But there is something else. Getting your chops down is one thing, but being able to communicate non-verbally with other musicians on-stage is another. This struck a chord with researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton.

As if first dates weren’t nerve-racking enough. A group of brave singles have signed up to let McMaster researchers track their every move. It’s all in the name of de-coding dating body language.

Some of the world's greatest musicians have been beset by stage fright.

Big Wreck frontman Ian Thornley didn't know he was a touch claustrophobic – that is until he decided to release his brand new solo album at McMaster University's Live Lab.

This facility has a number of “audience” seats that allow a large number of subjects to be assessed simultaneously with a wide range of data being compiled for any number of projects and research studies. Reverberation times, various signal to noise ratios, and a wide range of music and speech stimuli can be controlled with the flip of a software switch on a wireless tablet.