American Music Therapy Association

Music Therapy Research Featured at APA Meeting

AMTA-member, Professor Ed Roth, MM, MT-BC, of Western Michigan University, presented preliminary information from a pilot fMRI study examining mechanisms for improvisation in children at the recent annual meeting of the APA. His research partner, Dr. Charles Limb, is a renowned otolaryngologist at Johns Hopkins University and holds an appointment at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. The session, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), was one of a select group invited by the APA President, Dr. Nadine Kaslow. Along with Professor Roth, panel members of "The Arts, Creative Expression, and Psychological Research: Bringing Intellectual Clarity to Emotional Chaos" included Dr. Heechin Chae, Director of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) and TBI Clinic at Fort Belvoir and Bill O'Brien, Senior Adviser for Program Innovation at the NEA. A second panel, chaired by Sunil Iyengar, NEA Director of Research and Analysis, presented research about the role of arts in education. Both panels will be posted on the NEA website in the near future at www.arts.gov. In a related piece of news, the new Chairman for the NEA, Dr. Jane Chu, will be touring the NICoE at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and learning about the music therapy program from Julie Garrison, MM, MT-BC, who developed the innovative program.

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