Category: General

From Sunday 23^rd of April to Wednesday 26^th of April the international British Neuroscience Association’s festival of neuroscience of 2023 took place at the Brighton Centre. And please check out the view of one of the conference rooms:

As a systematic musicologist with only very specific knowledge of neuroscience in relation to music – as in what happens in the brain when we listen to music or making music ourselves – Lucy, one of my PhD supervisors, had suggested to join the conference and present a preregistration poster of our MMMP-project to learn more about the neuroscientific side of Parkinson’s research as well as getting feedback on our work from a different perspective. And, wow, I can tell you, it was a buzzing time and fascinating experience that I wouldn’t want to miss. So, thank you very much, Lucy!

I arrived on Saturday to give myself the chance to see something of Brighton as well. It is an amazing city that feels like it is buzzing with all the excitement of the people in it. Unfortunately, the weather has been quite mixed, but after living in the UK for about 2 months, I now know that is very normal and the weather can change every 10 minutes.

On Sunday morning, after collecting my badge and getting lost in the Brighton Centre (really it is like a huge maze and it happened to other people as well, so, totally not my fault), I visited the first parallel session about the neuropsychiatry of neurodegenerative diseases hosted by the British Neuropsychiatry Association. After the lunch break and some mingling, I attended the patient and public involvement (PPI) workshop conducted by Parkinson’s UK and researchers who have years of experience in doing PPI work. This workshop was especially helpful to me and my PhD research. Indeed, I have already learned much about PPI work due to my work for the MMMP-project, but it was great hearing the inside thoughts of Parkinson’s UK on it as well as their guidelines. Even more exciting, a lovely person with Parkinson’s was also part of the facilitating team as a so-called Parkinson’s contributor. They also provided us with a lot of literature tips which is also great for my PhD. During the first poster session I had the chance to talk to a researcher developing a new questionnaire to assess psychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative conditions by synthesizing existing standardized questionnaires. We were able to chat about their way of choosing the appropriate questionnaire to assess the symptom of apathy which provided a lot of supportive information for me since I’m focusing on apathy in Parkinson’s in my PhD thesis. After four talks about research about hippocampal neurons, the BNA 2023 festival was officially opened with a great opening ceremony and four talks about research credibility in neuroscience. This was followed by the opening reception.

On Monday, after listening to more fascinating talks and having nice conversations during coffee and lunch breaks, I got to present my poster for about 2 hours. Even though the methods of the project are not neuroscientific, I talked to a lot of interested people about it and exchanged contact details. It was great having neuroscience research asking questions and providing feedback from a different perspective. Ellen Poliakoff, who I had met last year at our concert ‘Playlist for Parkinson’s LIVE’ in Manchester, was also presenting a poster right next to me. Afterwards she introduced me to some of her PhD students and invited me to visit her team and give a talk about my work in the next months. So awesome! 😀

On Tuesday I attended a workshop (amongst more talks and poster presentations of course) about research communication delivered by editors of the ‘Inspire the Brain’ magazine. They provided a lot of useful tips on how to communicate your researcher on a lay level to help engage the public more.

On the last day of the conference, I went to a special session called ‘Desert Island Discs Papers’ in which researchers talked about inspiring papers, their careers, and what keeps them motivated when it comes down to writing a paper. They provided a lot of interesting and useful trips, such as having a dog with you that unconditionally supports you throughout the writing process is key. I might have to try this for my thesis then 😉

It was also great to get to spend some more time with Lucy who was also attend the conference. She has introduced me to a lot of people, and we had a great time trying out different seafoods at restaurants in the evenings.

After the end of the conference, I even had some time to try out some of the arcade machines at the famous Brighton Palace Pier.

Even though I haven’t won anything, it was still a lot of fun! I also let Zoltar predict my future, and according to him more relaxing times lie in front of me. I hope this means the next measurements, the concert and the ‘Songlines’ course will be fine?

Anyways, I will see you for the next read. As always, please feel free to leave any comments and have a look at the other posts.

Many thanks, see you soon and take care!

Hello dear research friends, enthusiasts and those who would like to become one!

The great adventure has started!

With suitcases heavily loaded, I left yesterday at 11 a.m. by train in the direction of Zurich airport, where the plane that is to take me safely to my new home for the next 12 months was already waiting for me. Luckily the flight went well despite the bad starting weather in Switzerland. Here you can see my jump over the channel, luckily I had a window seat 😉 :

I always find it exciting to watch the French coastline pass by behind you and only a few minutes later the English one seems to appear out of nowhere.

I can’t wait to start working and if I’m completely honest, I haven’t really realized that I’ve now arrived in England. However, I am thrilled and hugely grateful to have been given this opportunity. I will do my best to represent HSLU here in England in a worthy way.

Thank you for reading this blog and feel very free to leave comments. I can’t wait to keep you guys updated about my time in England! 🙂

Love and see you next time you read!

Hello dear research friends, interested people and those who would like to become one!

Since April I am a PhD student at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and have the great pleasure to give you an introduction to the project “Music, Movement, Mood & Parkinson’s” with this article.

What is the aim of the project?

Through an international consultation process, we want to work with people with Parkinson’s, therapists, doctors and other researchers to develop a new programme that uses music to improve the quality of life of people with Parkinson’s. This programme is a neurodegenerative disease that affects people with Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease for which, unfortunately, there is still no cure and as its incidence continues to increase, it is imperative to find alternative therapies to medication or surgery that not only help with motor symptoms but also improve the mood and well-being of those affected. This is where music comes in! Music has been proven to have a positive influence on our mood, especially if we really like the music we listen to and associate it with fond memories (as a systematic musicologist, I can only confirm this ;-)).  Moreover, these music-induced effects do not fade away over time, no, quite the opposite in fact, one can constantly listen to new music and associate positive experiences with it, thus creating an ever-growing musical treasure.

How is the project structured?

The project has been running for four years (yes, that’s right, you can look forward to new blog entries for that long ;-)) and we are currently in the consultation phase. Since April, we have held workshops in England, Ticino and Lucerne, asking different Parkinson’s patients, therapists, doctors and other scientists about their experiences and opinions on the topic of music, movement, mood and Parkinson’s disease. The results of the workshops will again be used in consultation with all participants to develop the new music-based programme. It is important for us to find out whether there are contextual differences between the three sites or whether it is possible to actually design a universal programme that can be implemented everywhere with only minimal adjustments.

From 2023, this programme will be tested in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) at the three sites in London, Lucerne and Lugano. An RCT originates from the clinical field and describes an evaluation process in which participants are randomly assigned to an experimental group. In our case, the participants act as their own control subjects, which is why fewer participants are needed. In order to not only look at the qualitative assessment from the participants’ side, we will use motion capture measurements and gait analysis to make any physiological changes quantitatively measurable as well. For this purpose we are setting up a brand new laboratory at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, but more about that in another blog entry.

In addition, we are conducting a so-called mixed-method online study. This is an internet questionnaire that we want to use to find out how people with Parkinson’s in Switzerland already use music in their everyday lives. With the results of this questionnaire, we not only want to organise a concert next year (more information will be published here), but also develop a new online resource that will be available for people with Parkinson’s, therapists and researchers around the world to use music. The best part is that anyone, including you, can add to this online database. For example, if you always use the same song for driving (for me it’s Country Roads by John Denver), you can upload that song and share it with others.

Who is part of the team?

The project headquarters is at the Lucerne School of Music. Here I work as a PhD student together with the project leader Dr Dawn Rose and the post-doc Dr Sabrina Köchli, but of course there are many other and great project collaborators at all three locations who contribute to the success of this project with their expertise.

Firstly, there are Dr Caroline Whyatt and Dr Lucy Annett from the University of Hertfordshire, who are supervising me on my PhD alongside Dawn, and secondly, of course, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stephan Bolhater and PD Dr. phil. Tim Vanbellingen from the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital (LUKS), Dr. ssa. med. Daria Dinacci from the Clinica Hildebrand as well as Prof. Dr. med. Salvatore Galati at the Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC) and Paolo Paolantonio in Ticino.

How is the project financed?

A large part of the project is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation and Parkinson Schweiz. But we are also very grateful to the Arnold Bentley New Initiatives Fund, as it enables us to disseminate our research results much more vividly through two live concerts than through purely academic publications. The programme for these two concerts is based on the results of online questionnaires on the use of music in the everyday lives of people with Parkinson’s in both the UK and Switzerland. The concerts are produced in collaboration with the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM, UK).

Thank you for reading this blog and feel very welcome to leave comments. I can’t wait to tell you about all the other exciting things and experiences.

Best wishes and see you next time!