Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Music is not only socially meaningful; it is biologically powerful.

Karen Barrett, PhD, uses music across the lifespan to improve health, communication, and quality of life. She helps cochlear implant users hear more clearly, developing new ways to evaluate and enhance implant performance, and studies how musical improvisation boosts creativity and flexible thinking in very young children.

Her work, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), also explores how improvisational music therapy can support people living with dementia and their care partners by helping to strengthen connections and well-being through music.

Learn more about Barrett’s work with the Institute for Health & Aging, the UCSF School of Nursing, and the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the links below:

More about Karen’s work: https://iha.ucsf.edu/people/karen-barrett-phd

More about the Institute for Health & Aging: https://iha.ucsf.edu/

Support the Institute for Health & Aging:
https://giving.ucsf.edu/fund/friends-in-health-and-aging