The audioanalgesia Core Investigative Team brings together expertise in music therapy, pain, psychology, biomedical engineering, music, medicine, social work, integrative therapies, and molecular toxicology from seven universities.
Core Investigative Team
Debra S. Burns, PhD, MT-BC
Principal Investigator
Dean of Communication & Fine Arts
The University of Memphis
Email | Website
Debra Burns specializes in music-based intervention research using mixed methodologies across the cancer treatment continuum from disease-directed treatment, survivorship and end of life. She has collaborated and consulted on several studies funded by the National Institutes of Health specializing in research methodology, determining the essential components of music interventions, designing appropriate control conditions and monitoring treatment fidelity. She has expertise in developing and working in cross disciplinary research teams, mentoring graduate students, and junior faculty. Her research focuses on MBI research in cancer-related symptom burden.
Adam T. Hirsh, PhD
Adam Hirsh, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Professor at Indiana University Indianapolis. His lab examines pain across the developmental spectrum, with a focus on how individual-level factors interact with interpersonal and socio-contextual factors to influence the experience of and judgments about pain. Dr. Hirsh conducts research with providers, patients (and their families), and healthy individuals. He uses diverse research methods, including computer-simulated virtual human technology, laboratory-based quantitative sensory testing, qualitative methods, and clinical data capture. Dr. Hirsh is actively involved in mentoring doctoral and postdoctoral trainees.
Ken Yoshida, PhD
Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS
Pain & Translational Symptom Science
University of Maryland
Email | Website
Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS, is an MPower Distinguished professor and the Director of the Placebo Beyond Opinions Center. As an NIH-funded principal investigator, Dr. Colloca has established an independent program of research on human pain modulation from both a mechanistic and translational viewpoint. Her team explores the role of neurobehavioral and genetic influences on a newly described model namely expectancy-induced analgesia, in patients suffering from chronic pain.
Becky Kinkead, PhD
Becky Kinkead, PhD, is a basic scientist (molecular toxicologist) who explores the role of integrative therapies and chronic inflammation in anxiety, depression, and cancer-related fatigue. She is a co-Investigator on the administrative core of two P50s, facilitating communication across projects, coordinating award administration. She specialized in developing standardized, controlled protocols to assist in replicability and treatment fidelity. She has also provided multiple workshops and consultations on grantsmanship.
Joseph J. Schlesinger, MD, FCCM
Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine
Vanderbilt University
Email | Website
Joseph Schlesinger, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Division of Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As an anesthesiologist and musician interested in the role of music in health outcomes for ICU patients, his research interests include multisensory integration, human factors, aural perception, and temporal precision.
Join Our Network
Music-Based Interventions and Pain
This project establishes a collaborative network of scientists and clinicians from various disciplines—music therapy, psychology, biomedical engineering, medicine, integrative therapies, molecular toxicology—to address major gaps in our understanding of music-based interventions (MBIs) in chronic pain. By bridging gaps in basic, applied, and clinical research, the project aims to optimize MBI research and accelerate its programs.
The efforts of this Research Network will result in new collaborations, new understandings of the mechanisms of MBIs, and new innovative technologies to measure pain outcomes. Additionally, we will carry out a pilot study program to address important gaps in knowledge related to psychosocial, behavioral, and/or neurophysiological factors related to MBIs’ influence on pain.
This project is made possible by Grant Number U24AT012602 from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NCCIH, NEA, or the National Institutes of Health.
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