Just Getting Started

This week I became an official volunteer at St. Joseph's Hospital so that I could work in Dr. Elliott Mufson's lab at Barrow Neurological. The hospital staff here are extremely friendly and are just as eager as I am for me to get started. They are also very helpful with directions, as this campus is huge and I am lost constantly.

The Mufson lab uses human brain tissue to study primarily Alzheimer's Disease, and more recently, Down Syndrome, as the two disorders have the shared occurrence of tau tangles and plaques that are thought to cause the problems with neurological function and the development of dementia common in affected individuals. While I do not yet know much more than this, I have a few research papers to read that I am sure will go into more detail.

This is only my second day in the lab, so I do not have much about which to write. Next week, because it will be my first full week, will likely have much more activity. Also, starting next week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I will be attending the Neurological Music Therapy Services of Arizona's (NMTSA) music therapy sessions, first as an observer, but then hopefully as a participant.

My opportunities and responsibilities as an intern will not be completely clear until next week. Whatever they may be, I look forward to the experience and will learn as much as I can about music and its workings in the brain.

Let's Begin

Hello all and welcome to my Senior Research Project (SRP) blog.

My name is Anila Tynan, and I am a senior at BASIS Phoenix. I joined the school as an eighth grader when it opened in 2012, and after five challenging, yet educationally enlightening years, I have the opportunity to forego my classes and pursue a senior project fro the entire third trimester. As a BASIS student, I have been exposed to all the subjects equally-- the social/applied/natural sciences, arts, humanities, languages-- but now it is time to pursue the topics that have really captured my interest and that I hope to pursue after I graduate in May.

Very little is known about how music affects the human brain. What we do know is how it makes us feel. Music can rouse us to sing and dance, give us goosebumps, and make us cry. It brings people together, defines cultures, and spans the entire globe. People of all ages can recognize and even create some sort of "music," and in the United States alone, the music industry is worth over $130 billion. No other species regards music as we do-- it defines us as human.

This clear impact that music has on the brain has infinite unexplored implications, especially in regards to neuroscience. Music and the Brain: How music affects our memories serves as an introduction to this field and how music might relate to the study of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Dementia, and Parkinson's. Over the next eleven weeks, I will be working in a research laboratory at the Barrow Neurological Institute learning lab techniques and studying Alzheimer's and Dementia, as well as participating in music therapy sessions run by the Neurological Music Therapy Services of Arizona, working with clients who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases, and seeing firsthand how music impacts their lives.

Overtime, as I expand my knowledge of the workings of the brain and of these diseases, as well as of the physical, mental, and emotional effects music therapy has on clients with these disorders, I hope to be able to decipher a fraction of what there is to discover about how music and the brain are connected.

Check out my SRP Proposal as well as the links to my internship websites to the right, and subscribe to keep updated on my project!