NSF Award
2412731
In all human cultures, music and dance serve to express our inner thoughts and feelings, as well as heal, console, and bond with each other, and outwardly to entertain and express our cultural identities. Scientifically, music and dance offer an exquisite window to study the neural basis of social interaction, communication and creativity and their impact on brain health. To harness the power of dance and music, this project will create a global network (The Movement, Music and BrainHealth AccelNet) comprised of industry-university cooperative research centers for Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) and for Accelerated Real Time Analytics (CARTA), the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, the NEUROLIVE project at University College London, and the European EBRAINS network. The goal is to accelerate rigorous, convergent, mechanistic and translational research of coupled brain activity, expressive movement and music catalyzed by artificial intelligence (AI), brain-computer interfacing (BCI), mobile brain-body imaging technology, and computational methods. The Movement, Music and Brain AccelNet will identify and accelerate new convergent research that aims to understand the mechanisms and develop applications, by which practicing music and dance affects brain function, creativity, and promotes health and well-being across the lifespan. A global transdisciplinary workforce development and mentoring program, annual workshops, and professional art-science performances will foster collaboration between the humanities, AI, science and engineering, educate future leaders and innovators, engage the public in research, and promote team science based on diverse cultural traditions.<br/><br/>The Movement, Music and BrainHealth AccelNet will assay, analyze, model and interpret coupled (synchronized) brain activity, movement, dance, sound, music and video from multiple sensors. Findings from this AccelNet will transform our understanding of the creative brain in action, and lead to sustained impact in cognitive, neural and rehabilitation engineering, passive and active BCIs, music and dance in medicine, and new context-aware BCI technologies that can infer collective behavioral intent and emotional states. By the end of its implementation phase, this AccelNet will operate across cultural, disciplinary, organizational, geographical and international boundaries that broaden participation and promote innovation. The deliverables will be open-access and engage the global community and industry partners for ensuring fast translation and dissemination.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
