Assal Habibi, Director, Ph.D.
Associate Research Professor of Psychology
Brain and Creativity Institute – USC Dornsife
Email: ahabibi@usc.edu
Assal Habibi is an Associate Research Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. Her research takes a broad perspective on understanding the influence of arts and specifically music on health and development, focusing on how biological dispositions and learning experiences shape the brain and development of cognitive, emotional and social abilities across the lifespan. She is an expert in the use of electrophysiological and neuroimaging methods to investigate human brain function and has used longitudinal and cross-sectional designs to investigate how music training programs impacts the learning and academic achievement of children. Her research program has been supported by federal agencies and private foundations including the NIH, NEA and the GRoW @ Annenberg Foundation and her findings have been published in many peers reviewed journals. She has been the lead investigator of a multi-year study, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and their Youth Orchestra program (YOLA), investigating the effects of early childhood music education on the development of brain function and structure as well as cognitive, emotional, and social abilities. Dr. Habibi is a classically trained pianist and has many years of musical teaching experience with children, a longstanding personal passion.
