Dr. Assal Habibi
Dr. Sarah Hennessy
Dr. Borna Bonakdarpour
Pilot Study Title: Central Auditory Processing Modulation Underlying Anxiety Reduction Using Clinically Designed Improvisatory Music
Position: Associate Professor of Neurology; Director, Northwestern Music and Medicine Program
Research goal: Understanding the effect of music-based interventions for neurocognitive disorders; Investigation of efficacy of music-based interventions for neurologic disorders.
Background: Clinician-investigator, behavioral neurology, music cognition, music neuroscience, piano performance, music composition, musicology.
Why this study: In this study we investigate how acoustically designed improvisatory music mitigates measurable changes in the brain causing reduction in anxiety in patients with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers. We hypothesized that aside from the role of music in retrieving autobiographical memory, music can reduce anxiety via modulation in the subcortical auditory network through entrainment and therefore reduce anxiety by decreasing noise in subcortical auditory system.
Dr. Lou Awad