New interdisciplinary research institute to explore the impact of music on health and well-being
09/23/2021
If popular
wisdom holds that music is good for the soul, science is increasingly seeking
to better understand how music can affect the body, brain, and mind, as
evidenced by the 2020 publication of the first World Health Organization report
on health and music.
In response,
the newly established University
of Ottawa Music and Health Research Institute (MHRI) has made it its core
mission to delve deeper into how musical intervention can affect health,
developing the knowledge, innovative therapeutic practices, and solutions that
can contribute to improving the health of populations.
The driving
force behind this interdisciplinary initiative, which stands at the
intersection of music, health sciences, social sciences, engineering, and
medicine, is Faculty of Arts Professor Gilles Comeau, who has been appointed as
director of the Institute for a five-year mandate. He is joined by the MHRI
associate director and Faculty of Health Sciences professor Anna Zumbansen, who
will bring her own complementary expertise to the Institute’s leadership.
“We want the
Institute to become recognized as a major research hub and a reference in the
field of music and health. A place where scholars, clinicians, caregivers, and
music educators can exchange knowledge and work together to investigate and
demonstrate, through a science-based approach, the benefits of music practice
and therapy on physical, sensory, cognitive, and mental health,” says Gilles
Comeau.
Born out of
Comeau’s vision and leadership, the MHRI will roll out interdisciplinary,
participatory, and action-based research initiatives to measure how learning
and practicing music can affect children with hearing loss, seniors with
cognitive and motor impairments, as well as people suffering from mental health
problems.
The MHRI is
a cradle for interdisciplinary research partnerships that bring together top
talents from the faculties of Arts, Health Sciences and Social Sciences, and
the Professional Development Institute at the University of Ottawa. The
Institute has also partnered with external organizations, including: Carleton
University; the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Mental Health Research at
The Royal, the Bruyère Research Institute, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern
Ontario (CHEO), The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) (Education), and the Lotus Centre for
Specialized Music Education. These partners will contribute their expertise to
a roster of forward-thinking and scientifically creative initiatives.
“Music
Making with Elderly People” is a major research initiative that the Institute
will carry out with The Royal and Bruyère. It will examine how the brain
functions responsible for attention, balance, gait, or a patient’s
psychological and mental state can be affected by multi-tasking musical
interventions that combine rhythmic bodily movements, ear training, tapping,
clapping, vocal or instrumental improvisation, and playing percussion
instruments. This partnership will give the uOttawa-based project an additional
foothold at the Orléans-based campus of Bruyère and at The Royal, thus giving
the project better access to a larger pool of seniors and patients with whom to
push forward research.
“We are
particularly excited to partner with the MHRI at uOttawa to generate and apply
new knowledge to serve people living with mental illness”, says Florence
Dzierszinski, who is president of the University of Ottawa’s Institute of
Mental Health Research at The Royal and vice-president, research, at The Royal.
“We particularly look forward to our first project, which focuses on music and
aging, and will see the establishment of a music and mental health research
clinic, which will be designed by researchers, clinicians, program leaders, and
people with lived expertise, and will be connected to our cutting-edge
technological platforms, including our Brain Imaging Centre,” says
Dzierszinski.
We are
excited to be a key partner with the new Music and Health Research Institute
and further study the benefits of music at Bruyère," says Heidi Sveistrup,
CEO and chief scientific officer of the Bruyère Research Institute and
vice-president, research, and academic affairs at Bruyère. "The science is
clear – music making and moving to music have important cognitive, emotional
and physical health benefits.”
Read
the full article here.