Language, Music and Dementia (2024-2025)

This project team set out to investigate how musical training and multilingualism shape brain function and whether these factors may offer protection against dementia and cognitive decline. Using both neuroimaging methods, such as fMRI, DTI, rsfMRI and EEG, and behavioral measures including interviews, recordings and language proficiency testing, the team studied professional musicians who are monolingual or highly proficient in multiple languages. Their research design aimed to map how language and music are processed in the brain and to examine the interactions between these skills in sensory-motor networks.

Over the past year, the team advanced data collection and analysis while also engaging the broader community through poster sessions, thesis defenses and the Bass Connections showcase, which featured a highly rated interactive component. Team members contributed to EEG and fMRI research, collaborated with Duke faculty and presented findings across neuroscience forums. Their work has already generated student publications and continues to build evidence on the cognitive benefits of musicianship and multilingualism, offering new insights into how these experiences may delay or lessen dementia symptoms.

Timing

Fall 2024 – Spring 2025

Team Outputs

Language, Music, and Dementia (Interactive display presented at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 16, 2025)

Investigating Multilingualism’s Impact on Neural Function in Young Adults: A Resting-State Electrophysiological Analysis (Honors thesis with distinction, Aline Malek ’25)

Investigating the Mechanism and Treatment of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy in theATP1A3Mashl/+ Model of Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (Honors thesis with distinction, Amitesh Verma ’25)

See earlier related team, Language, Music and Dementia (2023-2024).