The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America has awarded Emory University a $200,000 grant to advance research exploring how artistic engagement may promote brain health and emotional well-being, led by Monica W. Parker, MD, outreach, recruitment, and engagement core lead for Emory’s Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center within the Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute. The award supports a new community-based participatory research collaboration among Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and Performance Hypothesis. 

The collaboration is part of a new Arts + Health Laboratory: Georgia’s NeuroArts Coalition, announced in October by the Woodruff Arts Center. It brings together academic partners, community organizations, and nonprofits to investigate how the arts improve both brain and overall health, and to use science-based findings to expand access in schools, healthcare systems, and communities statewide. 

“This began with a simple wish—to bring people together through art and music while helping them learn about the brain,” said Shirley Fields, who is a research participant at the Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) and member of the ADRC Community Coalition. “Music reaches parts of us that words can’t. By partnering with Emory and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, we’re showing that brain science is for everyone—not just researchers.” 

Through this research, the Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute aims to deepen understanding of how arts-based interventions can help preserve and restore brain health across the lifespan, including how engagement with music may strengthen emotional well-being and social connection among individuals living with cognitive change and their care partners. 

“The intersection of neuroscience and the arts represent one of the most promising frontiers in brain health,” says Allan Levey, MD, PhD, Executive Director of Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute. “Through this partnership with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, we are translating science into human experience—studying how creative engagement can strengthen connection, lift mood, and potentially slow the effects of cognitive decline. This is exactly the kind of collaboration that reflects Emory’s mission to improve lives through innovation and community.” 

To celebrate the launch of this partnership, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will host a select group of program participants to attend Christmas with the ASO on Sunday, December 14. The concert will allow participants to experience the power of a live orchestra and choral performance while contributing to research. 

For more information or to purchase tickets for an upcoming ASO performance, click here.