Project team
Jorg Fachner
Professor
Together with music therapy, health, and computer science researchers in Austria, we were keen to investigate intervention timing and shared moments of interest in neurorehabilitation. For this we brought the lab to the bedside to study patient needs and interactive responses, aiming to realise a just-in-time research agenda of personalised music therapy interventions.
This research protocol aimed to bring the lab and field closer together by capturing real-world music therapy sessions in situ. We adapted EEG and ECG procedures to measure the heart and brain activity of both therapist and patient during and after therapy, and asked them about moments during the session that stood out to them. This work opened a new chapter in ARU’s clinical social neuroscience research.
From 2014, we collaborated with music therapy researchers from IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences, Dr Matthias Zeppelzauer (computer scientist, St. Poelten University of Applied Sciences), Prof Susanne Perkhofer (health researcher, FH Innsbruck) and computer and healthcare industry partners to establish a Josef Ressel Centre (a highly competitive excellence research initiative for applied research). With funds from the Austrian Science Foundation (CDG), the JR Centre for ‘Horizons of personalised music therapy’ started in 2017 and – after COVID extension – concluded in 2022.
To investigate and develop 'just-in time' interventions and identify ingredients of therapeutic moments of interest (MOI), we installed a mobile lab to record AV-EEG data on a neurorehabilitation ward in Kittsee and St. Poelten. Other than a video EEG used in neurology, we needed time-stamped and synchronised EEG recorded from two persons, and separated audio and HD video from at least three cameras. We created a mobile set-up with synchronised Go Pro cameras that worked well on the ward.
We published a protocol of our plans (Fachner et. al., 2021) and reported about the technical and methodological feasibility of implementing the mobile lab and MOI identification strategy (Tucek et. al., 2022). Patients reported they felt neither distracted by the machinery, nor burdened by the additional time needed for video analysis and interviewing.
To foster patient perspectives on the intervention process, patients were interviewed about their MOI experience during therapy. A PhD student (Heine, 2024) analysed interviews and video observation. She described in detail how the patient’s shift of attention relates to specific timepoints in the therapy process, and that a patient-led focus structures the therapy process more distinctly. Overlaps between therapist and patient selections are in the focus of the current EEG analysis to establish a common ground of inter-brain connectivity during the MOIs.
Another PhD student analysed non-verbal synchrony of body movements during pre- and post-talk in music therapy (Yap et al 2022), showing a change from therapist led to patient led synchrony after music therapy. She further investigated ECG synchrony measures during MOIs and described several instances of high and low heart rate synchrony between therapist and patient, pointing towards increased density of MOIs and synchrony later in the session.
2016: Kick-off meeting in Krems, September.
2017: Feasibility study with medical actors from Medical University Vienna finalised to test hyperscanning set-up with blinded therapist.
2018: Confirmation from CDG to continue.
2019: First hyperscanning study in music therapy (Fachner et al 2019) published and feasibility study started.
2020: Protocol and feasibility study finalised, and main study started.
2021: Main study data collection finalised.
2022: CDG funding ended.
Yap, S. S. (2024) Synchrony during music therapy and its relationship to self-reported therapy readiness: a mixed-methods case series study. PhD thesis, Anglia Ruskin University. Available at: https://doi.org/10.25411/aru.27257397.v2
Heine, A. (2024) Moments of interest in music therapy with persons after a stroke. PhD thesis, Anglia Ruskin University.
Fachner, J. and Yap, S. S. (submitted) 'Make the invisible visible – towards process-based outcome research on mechanisms of change in music therapy'. In: Raglio, A. (Ed.) (forthcoming) Music and Music Therapy Interventions in Clinical Practice. Cham: Springer.
Yap, S. S., Ramseyer, F., Fachner, J., Maidhof, C., Tschacher, W. and Tucek, G. (2022) 'Dyadic nonverbal synchrony during pre and post music therapy interventions and its relationship to self-reported therapy readiness', Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, 16, 912729. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.912729
Tucek, G., Maidhof, C., Vogl, J., Heine, A., Zeppelzauer, M., Steinhoff, N. and Fachner, J. (2022) 'EEG hyperscanning and qualitative analysis of moments of interest in music therapy for stroke rehabilitation – a feasibility study', Brain Sciences, 12(565). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12050565
Fachner, J., Maidhof, C., Heine, A., Vogl, J., Steinhoff, N. and Tucek, G. (2021) 'From the lab to the field – EEG hyperscanning and qualitative analysis of moments of interest in music therapy for stroke rehabilitation' ['"Vom Labor ans Krankenbett": EEG-Hyperscanning und qualitative Analyse bedeutsamer musiktherapeutischer Momente in der Neurorehabilitation – ein Studienprotokoll'], Musiktherapeutsche Umschau, 42(4), pp. 360-375. Available at: https://doi.org/10.13109/muum.2021.42.4.360
Fachner, J. (2020) 'Situationisten, Kairos und Hyper Brains – Moment mal!', Musiktherapeutische Umschau, 41(4), pp. 410-418. Available at: https://doi.org/10.13109/muum.2020.41.4.410
Fachner, J. C., Maidhof, C., Grocke, D., Nygaard Pedersen, I., Trondalen, G., Tucek, G. and Bonde, L. O. (2019) '"Telling me not to worry…" Hyperscanning and Neural Dynamics of Emotion Processing During Guided Imagery and Music', Front Psychol, 10, 1561. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01561
Fachner, J. (2017) 'Music, moments and healing processes: Music therapy'. In: Ashley, R. and Timmers, R. (Eds.) (2017) Routledge Companion to Music Cognition. London: Routledge, pp. 89-100.
Fachner, J., Erkkila, J. and Brabant, O. (2017) 'On musical identities, social pharmacology and intervention timing in music therapy'. In: Hargreaves, D., MacDonald, R. and Miell, D. (Eds.) (2017) Musical Identities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 682-700.
Brains in sync, ARU research case study
Professor
