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.

What's the purpose of music? Is music simply for entertainment, or does it actually do something for the brain? Researchers at McMaster University are looking into these questions - from the effect music has on the development of infants to how it's received by people with Parkinson's disease. Neuroscientist Laurel Trainor joins The Agenda in the Summer to explore the neurology of notes.

There's almost always something interesting happening musically in Hamilton every day of the week but this week a new series starts at McMaster University's Institute for Music and the Mind that is on an even grander scale.