Members of the Yale schools of public health, medicine, and nursing recently came together for Yale's first Music, Memory, and Aging Symposium. The January 29 gathering at the Anlyan Center featured researchers from diverse fields such as geriatrics, nursing, psychiatry, neuroscience, music, and computer science.
Sophia Moret, a postbaccalaureate research associate in Dr. Carolyn Frederick’s Lab at the Yale School of Medicine and one of the organizers of the symposium, shared her inspiration for helping create the event.
“When Dr. Fredericks and I started our own music and dementia study in collaboration with Dr. Samuel Mehr from the University of Auckland, we were under the impression that this space was very much a niche, and we weren’t aware of others doing similar work at Yale,” said Moret. “Later, I chatted with Dr. AZA Allsop, PhD, at Yale about his work with live music listening using EEG, and it was like a lightbulb went off for me. I thought, why aren’t we having an event where we can all connect, collaborate, and share our work using music? It became really apparent that there are, in fact, a lot of groups doing this sort of research here and at other institutions. We just needed to build the bridge.”
Symposium planning committee members included Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) professors Joan Monin, PhD, and Judith Lichtman, PhD, MPH. Echoing Moret’s sentiments, Monin, who co-designs supportive interventions with families living with dementia, some involving music, said that her primary goal was to connect researchers and get them excited about the numerous impacts of music within science.
The symposium kicked off with a research presentation by Yale School of Nursing Dean Azita Emami, PhD, RN, FAAN, entitled “When Words are Lost, Music Remains: Reimagining Dementia Care Through Music.” Emami said the next phase of her research will use wearable devices to track how music interventions may guide transitions from agitated and anxiety-like states to calmness and emotional stability. In line with the symposium’s themes of connection and collaboration, Dr. Emami’s research represented an ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration between the Yale schools of nursing, medicine, engineering and applied science, and music.
Symposium presenters also shared new and potentially synergistic approaches on how music could play an integral role in patient care and public health. In one instance, Yale researchers are reframing primary care for veterans with dementia through a pilot music therapy group targeting loneliness. In another example, a Yale study is investigating how different melodic structures enhance working memory.
The last presentation focused on “Creative Aging” with John-Morgan Bush, Dean of Juilliard Extension. Bush urged his audience to consider creative aging programs as an essential public health infrastructure to improve well-being among older adults. Juilliard Extension is the flagship open-enrollment continuing education program for nonmatriculated students at the Juilliard School, a world-class private performing arts conservatory in New York City. At YSPH, Bush is involved in an ongoing collaboration, Harmonizing for Health, where he and Lichtman, with others, seek to characterize how music may serve as an intervention for health care staff burnout.
Before ending for the day, Lichtman facilitated a Q&A where audience members asked the scientists about their research and views on various topics in the field. The in-person participants then split off for a poster session while virtual participants engaged in a continued discussion about science at the intersection of music, memory, and aging. Finally, participants gathered for a drum circle demonstration led by Shannon Kiley, a certified music therapist at LiveWell, a Connecticut-based organization that supports individuals living with dementia through research, education, counseling, and advocacy.
Symposium organizers hope to engage a broader community next year.
“From our post-symposium survey, attendees said they really enjoyed learning about topics they had not heard about before and connecting with their peers,” Monin said. “The symposium increased their understanding of the scientific and social impacts of music, and they want another symposium next year. Personally, I love doing research that makes people feel connected across the lifespan, and music does this so beautifully. This symposium further inspired me to help move research on music and aging forward as a public health initiative with my colleagues in public health, nursing, medicine, computer science, and beyond.”