Current Members

Principal Investigator

Dr. Assal Habibi is an Assistant Research Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute at University of Southern California. Her research takes a broad perspective on how biological dispositions and environmental factors interact and how learning experiences during childhood shape human development. She is an expert in the use of electrophysiologic and neuroimaging methods to investigate human brain structure and function and her research has published in several peer reviewed journals. Dr. Habibi completed her doctoral work at UC Irvine, investigating the effects of musical training in musicians, non-musicians and patients with auditory impairments. Dr. Habibi is a classically trained pianist and has many years of musical teaching experience with children.

Co-Investigator

Beatriz Ilari is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Southern California where she teaches graduate courses in music psychology, the sociology of music education, music in childhood, and research methods. She has conducted extensive research with babies, preschoolers, and school-aged children from the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Japan, and Mexico. In her work, she uses a variety of approaches to study different aspects of musical development and growth of infants, children, and adolescents. Her research is interdisciplinary in nature. Beatriz collaborates with scholars from diverse fields, including neuroscientists from USC Brain & Creativity Institute, and psychologists and educators from the Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) team. She is currently the editor for Perspectives: Journal of the Early Childhood Music & Movement and Association (ECMMA), and also serves on the editorial boards of prestigious journals including Psychology of Music, Musicae Scientiae, and Music & Science.

Director, Dornsife Neuroimaging Center

Hanna Damasio M.D. is University Professor, Dana Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Dana and David Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center at the University of Southern California. Using computerized tomography and magnetic resonance scanning, she has developed methods of investigating human brain structure and studied functions such as language, memory and emotion, using both the lesion method and functional neuroimaging.Besides numerous scientific articles (her Web of Knowledge H Index is 74; over 25,000 citations) she is the author of the award-winning Lesion Analysis in Neuropsychology (Oxford University Press), and of Human Brain Anatomy in Computerized Images (also Oxford University Press), the first brain atlas based on computerized imaging data, now in its second edition.

Director, Brain & Creativity Institute

Antonio Damasio is University Professor, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Professor of Psychology, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California; he is also an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. Damasio has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying, emotions, feelings, decision-making and consciousness. He is the author of numerous scientific articles (his Google scholar H Index is 144; over 129,000 citations) and his research has received continuous Federal funding for 30 years. He is the recipient of many awards (including the Grawemeyer Award, 2014; the Honda Prize, 2010; the Asturias Prize in Science and Technology, 2005; and the Signoret Prize, 2004, which he shared with his wife Hanna Damasio).

Kevin Jamey is a postdoctoral researcher at the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC, working with Dr. Assal Habibi. His research focuses on music-based interventions to support cognitive development in children. He completed his PhD in Psychology at BRAMS (Université de Montréal) with Dr. Simone Dalla Bella, where he adapted a rhythmic tablet app (Rhythm Workers) to help improve sensorimotor and executive skills in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (autism, ADHD & stuttering). He is currently studying the long-term effects of music training in children, examining both behavioral outcomes and brain plasticity. Outside the lab, Kevin is also a singer-songwriter and producer, blending science and art to explore emotion and movement through music creation.

Ellen graduated from Muhlenberg College in 2015 with a BA in Neuroscience and a BS in Theatre Performance. She spent several years as an arts educator and performer before worked at Northwestern University as a clinical research coordinator studying Parkinson’s Disease. She joined the Brain and Creativity Institute in 2020 where she is thrilled to have the ability to research the intersection of her two passions of neuroscience and the arts. Ellen is interested in creative improvisation, rhythm, synchrony, and music as they relate to neuroplasticity and cognition during development, older adults, and disease populations. In her free time Ellen enjoys backpacking, singing, eating delicious food, and exploring new places.

Colin graduated from UCLA in 2015 with a BS in Cognitive Science and has since worked as a research assistant at UCLA and Stanford. Colin has been playing music since he was 2 years old and was a member of the 2010-11 Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet, a fellowship program founded by Dave Brubeck. As a current graduate student Colin plans to combine his interests in music and neuroscience, as well as engage in research on other aspects of cognition. In his free time Colin enjoys movies, producing music, and listening to audiobooks.

Jed graduated from Carleton College in 2022 with a BA in Cognitive Science and a minor in Music. As an undergraduate, his research investigated childhood expertise and listening effort. Joining the Brain & Music Lab in 2022 as a post-baccaleaureate fellow, continued his research on entrainment and groove while also exploring other dimensions of music cognition in child development. In the Fall of 2024, Jed joins the lab as PhD Student.  Jed’s free time is spent playing Pokémon Go, watching soccer, and listening to Porter Robinson.

Vani is a doctoral student with the Brain and Creativity Institute studying how music training affects developmental and educational outcomes. She hopes to utilize mobile technologies and naturalistic stimuli to push the boundaries for how these complex cognitive processes are studied, and to prioritize the study of diverse global music traditions and underrepresented communities. These interests are a confluence of prior research experience studying musical improvisation with the UCSF Sound and Music Perception Lab and topics in educational neuroscience with the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative. Vani is also a lifelong musician and DJ, stimulating the brain and body and activating audiences worldwide with global music.

Research Coordinator, the Preconscious Brain, Aging Minds Minds Study

I graduated from USC with a B.A. in Cognitive Science in 2023. I joined the Brain & Music Lab as a research assistant in January 2024 and was hired as a study coordinator in May 2024. I have coordinated and collected data for our Precog and Aging Minds projects. I intend to apply for my PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience for Fall 2027, and have a diverse range of research interests including empathy and social connection, language, and religious beliefs and experiences. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, lifting weights, cooking, and playing tabletop games.

Research Coordinator, Music Training and Child Development

Caitlin has worked with the Brain and Music Lab since 2021. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California, where she also minored in Songwriting. She is a classically-trained pianist and a strong advocate for the power of music and creativity in health & well-being. In her free time, you can find her outside, painting, and making music.

Research Coordinator, Aging Minds Study, Music Training and Child Development, Opera Study

Melissa joined the Brain and Music Lab in 2024. She has a Masters of Science in Communication Data Science from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Science and Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley. In her spare time she enjoys reading and exploring the intersection of data and design.