Image
Singers instinctively know that participating in a chorus is good for them, but more reasearch is needed to prove the health benefits scientifically. Julene Johnson, a cognitive neuroscientist and professor at UCSF featured in our recent Singing & Wellness issue of the Voice, is embarking on a multi-year study funded by the NIH that she hopes will prove that singing in a choir makes seniors healthier. "This is potentially inexpensive, can be translated to lots of settings and is pretty easy to sustain,” she says. “We tend to be limited in what we think people should be doing when they’re older, [but] the potential for creativity in the advanced years is enormous, and often goes untapped. This needs to change.”