Music and Movement: Behavioural and brain responses to rhythm

Join us for the following sMAP CREATE webinar and forward to colleagues who may be interested:

The sMAP CREATE program webinar series invites scientists from different disciplines whose commitment and research relate to mobility in aging populations.

Join us for this meeting on Zoom:
https://mcmaster.zoom.us/j/96006317226?pwd=Z3dkNmZrZjBYek9HS21UQnlmNmFRZz09

ABSTRACT:
Moving to music is a spontaneous and natural activity for most of us. Much of our movement is synchronized to an underlying pulse, or ‘beat’ that we sense in the musical rhythm. Here I will discuss how areas of the brain that control movement also respond when we hear rhythm or feel the beat, and the potential held by musical therapies for helping aid mobility in those with degenerative neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Jessica Grahn is an Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario. She investigates the role of the motor system in rhythm and beat perception, as well as how music affects cognitive abilities. Her applied work tests patients with Parkinson’s disease to examine how musical rhythm helps gait disorders. Dr. Grahn has degrees in Neuroscience and Piano Performance from Northwestern University, as well as a PhD from Cambridge University, England, in the Neuroscience of Music. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, and  has received various awards for both her science and her outreach, including the Charles Darwin Award in Public Communication of Science from the British Science Association, an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario government, a New Investigator Award from CIHR, and most recently the prestigious EWR Steacie Fellowship from NSERC.