BAM!! Insights on the Brain & Music 2 of 3

Music, Memory, & the Aging Brain

DR. CONCETTA M. TOMAINO, DA, LCAT, MT-BC Executive Director/Co-Founder, Institute for Music and Neurologic Function

Presentation Synopsis
Both research and clinical work in music therapy point to the importance of music as a therapeutic tool to help facilitate preserved function in people with various neurologic diseases—especially ones that involve movement disorders and neurocognitive impairment—and the field of cognitive neuroscience is starting to provide information about how and why this is the case.

Music, Memory, and the Aging Brain gives an overview of how music-based interventions can be used to enhance memory and stimulate associations and personal connections in those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The presentation will also address issues related to motor timing and expectation, improvisation and disinhibition, attention and memory, and language processing as well as strategies for including music to enhance senior wellness and healthcare.

About Dr. Concetta M. Tomaino
Dr. Concetta M. Tomaino is the executive director and co-founder—with the renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks—of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF). Previously, she was the senior vice president for music therapy for the CenterLight Health System (formerly the Beth Abraham Family of Health Services), where she worked from 1980 to 2016. In 2017, Dr. Tomaino and the IMNF relocated to the campus of Wartburg, a senior residential and healthcare facility in Mt. Vernon, New York.

Dr. Tomaino is known internationally for her research in the clinical applications of music and neurologic rehabilitation, and she lectures around the world on music therapy. Her work has been featured on national television programs, such as 48 Hours and 60 Minutes; on international broadcast channels, including the BBC; and in books on health and healing. Dr. Sacks’s book Musicophilia is dedicated to her. Dr. Tomaino’s book Music Has Power in Senior Wellness and Healthcare: Best Practices from Music Therapy was published in 2023 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Dr. Tomaino is the past president of the American Association for Music Therapy and the past vice president and founding board member for the International Association for Music and Medicine; she also received the Award of Accomplishment from Music Therapists for Peace at the United Nations. Her additional honors include receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for Music Therapy in 2014; the inaugural Burton Grebin Innovator of the Year Award from the New York Continuing Care Leadership Coalition in 2011; the Professional Practice Award from the American Association for Music Therapy in 2010; the distinction of being named one of Three Wise Women by the National Organization of Italian American Women, also in 2010; the Music has Power Award from the IMNF and the Zella Bronfman Butler Award (which is given by the UJA-Federation of New York in partnership with the J. E. and Z. B. Butler Foundation) in 2004; and a Touchstone Award from Women in Music for her visionary spirit in 1999.

Dr. Tomaino is an adjunct professor at CUNY Lehman College.