The NEA Research Lab at USF examines the effects of cognition and coordination in music education and music interventions across the lifespan. This work has been developed at the intersection of our initiatives to understand developmental differences, psychological effects, and brain mechanisms underlying music learning and music interventions. 

The NEA Research Lab at USF is directed towards NEA’s Arts, Creativity, Cognition, and Learning initiative.

We are interested in answering the questions:

• What are the effects of gross motor and fine motor music training interventions on music achievement, bimanual coordination, executive functions, and attention, in children, young adults, and older adults?
• Are there dosage effects of  fine motor and gross motor music training on behavioral outcomes of music achievement, bimanual coordination, executive functions, and attention?
• How do learning-related outcomes associated with fine motor and gross motor music programs vary by age, socioeconomic characteristics, other demographic/behavioral patterns, and by health/disability status?
• What are the benefits and related outcomes for specific music pedagogies applied in different settings?

To help answer these questions the NEA Research Lab at USF is:

• Developing a reliable and valid measure of bimanual coordination in music learning.
• Implementing measures of bimanual coordination in conjunction with physiological and cognitive measures to examine potential interactions between different types of motor performance in music learning.

Examples of collaborative projects we are working on right now:

• Bimanual Coordination Across the Lifespan (Keystone): We are recruiting participants (young adults, older adults, and children) to examine the effects of coordination in gross and fine motor music training and intervention programs on cognition. 
• Multimodal Music Programs: we are examining the effects of novel multimodal music training programs on cognitive outcomes and bimanual motor performance in at-risk young children.
• Jazz Piano Training in Older Adults: We are examining the effects of coordination involved in different types of music activities (improvisation, imitation) on cognitive and neurophysiological mechanisms.