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The theme of “Music Medicine through the Lifespan” addressed important issues related to music, health, and aging that are becoming increasingly important to society. The Canadian Association for Music Therapy (CAMT) met June 22-24, on the complementary theme “Celebrating 40 years of Music Therapy across the Lifespan.” Both CAMT and IAMM featured an extraordinary group of leading international researchers and practitioners in music therapy and music medicine.
We thank program co-hosts Lee Bartel (University of Toronto, MaHRC), Heidi Ahonen (Wilfrid Laurier University, CIMTR), and Amy Clements-Cortes (CAMT, UofT, Baycrest) and their many colleagues for their superb organizational work. For the University of Toronto, Music & Health (including music therapy and music medicine) is an interdisciplinary research priority. MaHRC (the Music and Health Research Collaboratory) is quickly developing into one of UofT’s leading global research initiatives. MaHRC is building a critical mass of expertise in areas that we all recognize will promote healthy people, healthy communities, and a healthy world. Conferences such as these for CAMT and IAMM represent opportunities for collaborative exchange of knowledge and strategies that will help us togetherachieve these goals.
Read on to learn about the highlights from IAMM2014!
Highlights
Prominent experts presented the latest research results in music and medicine.
Laurel Trainor
Presentation: Music Medicine in Childhood
Dr Trainor’s research interests include the perception and cognition of music, human auditory perceptual and cognitive development, the perception of objects, speech and music in relation to communication, emotional development, and social interaction. As director of the Auditory Development Lab, McMaster University, she studies the perception of sound in infants, children, and adults, as well as the acquisition of music and language. She is particularly interested in what infants perceive when they listen to speech and music, how this changes as they grow, and what influences how sound perception develops.
Gottfried Schlaug
Presentation: The Power of Singing: Implications for Brain Plasticity and Recovery of Function
Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, MD., PhD. is the Director of the Neuroimaging Laboratory and Director of the Stroke Recovery Laboratory, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Co-Director of Comprehensive Stroke Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Chief, Cerebrovascular Division, Department of Neurology, BIDMC. Dr. Schlaug has a broad background in cognitive and developmental neuroscience, neuroimaging, neurorehabilitation, and recovery from brain injury including stroke, and auditory-motor interactions in neurological disorders. The overarching goal of his research is to examine, influence and induce, detect and image in-vivo brain plasticity in patients recovering from stroke and in normal healthy subjects undergoing intense and long-time training of sensorimotor skills. Dr. Schlaug’s experience with human subjects and special populations, such as stroke patients recovering from their speech-communication problems, has fostered an interest in auditory-motor connections and in a brain network that is commonly referred to as the mirror neuron system (MNS). Supported by NIH grants, Dr. Schlaug is evaluating the efficacy of an intonation-based speech therapy versus a non-intonation speech therapy in improving outcome in stroke patients with aphasia.
Julian F. Thayer, Ph.D. Ohio Eminent Scholar Professor in Health Psychology, Ohio State University. Previously Chief of the Emotions and Quantitative Psychophysiology Section in the Laboratory of Personality and Cognition at the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Thayer has published over 195 research papers and book chapters covering a wide range of topics including behavioral medicine, cardiology, emotion, psycho- pathology, bioengineering, research design, and multivariate statistical techniques. Dr. Thayer has received research awards including the Sigma Xi Research Recognition Award; the Early Career Award for Contributions to Psychosomatic Medicine from the American Psychosomatic Society; a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research on emotion; and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award. He is a Fellow of the Society for Behavioral Medicine. He has served as Associate Editor of Psychophysiology, on the editorial board of Psychosomatic Medicine as well as Music and Medicine and is an Associate Editor of Bio-Psycho-Social Medicine. Dr. Thayer is also a professional jazz musician and has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe He has recorded with Charlie Mariano, Geri Allen, Pheeroan akLaff, Emil Viklicky, Paul Steven Ray, Scott Robinson, Frank Carlberg, Eli Fountain, Jarmo Savolainen, and Klaus Suonsaari.
7th International Conference of the IAMM
IAMM is excited to announce our next interdisciplinary conference on music and medicine from May 28-29, 2022 in Athens, Greece and May 30 - June 3, 2022 online!
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic and to facilitate maximum international participation, you can opt to attend the conference virtually or in-person.
Athens is one of the world's oldest cities, offering centuries-old history to be explored and enjoyed. According to Plato, one of the first schools of music education was founded by the people of Crete followed by the musical schools of Athens, where students were taught to sing and play the lyre. We sincerely hope you will join us in this magical and historical city for our conference in-person or virtually.
