Moving and Grooving: Musical Rhythm’s Effects on the Brain

Dr. Grahn was the first researcher to establish the neural link between hearing musical rhythm and spontaneous activation of the brain’s motor control system by asking the question why do humans move to rhythm? Her contributions to the fields of psychology and neuroscience have brought her a Charles Darwin Award in Public Communication of Science from the British Science Association, the Early Researcher Award from the Ontario government, a New Investigator Award from CIHR, and an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship by NSERC. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and was named to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Currently, Dr. Grahn hopes to advance her work in cross-species comparisons to guide training interventions for Parkinson’s patients.