Research Opportunities
Learn more about the PROMUS Lab's guiding research principles — and how to get involved in upcoming studies.
PROMUS Lab research uses tools from affective neuroscience, including brain imaging, to understand why people engage with music and how they use music to regulate their mood states, experience of pain and other psychological and physiological symptoms.
Our research examines the links between:
- music and lung health,
- music and pain,
- music and emotion,
- music and Alzheimer’s disease and
- the interaction of kidney and brain health with a body/mind/brain approach.
Pie chart of areas of research focus: links between music and lung health, pain, emotion, Alzheimer’s disease, and the interaction of kidney and brain health with a body/mind/brain approach
Get Involved
Stay tuned for updates on the newest active studies from the PROMUS Lab.
- Music and Alzheimer's project
- Hess B.J., Zatloukal A, Taylor J.M., Neidens M, Williams K.N., Lepping RJ. A qualitative study of music-based intervention use for Alzheimer's disease in elder care communities. J Alzheimers Dis Rep. 2025 Jul 29;9:25424823251363488. doi: 10.1177/25424823251363488. PMID: 40755857; PMCID: PMC12314239.
- Lepping R.J., Hess B.J., Taylor J.M., Hanson-Abromeit D, Williams K.N. Inconsistent Music-Based Intervention Reporting in Dementia Studies: A Systematic Mapping Review. J Alzheimers Dis. 2024;100(4):1145-1159. doi: 10.3233/JAD-240255. PMID: 38995790; PMCID: PMC11380233.
- EMPOWER Project
- Taylor J.M., Otieno T.W., Hess B.J., Hanson-Abromeit D, Choi J, Stewart N.H., Wilson A.L., Brunkan M.C., Castro M, Lepping R.J. Engaging Community Members and Researchers in the Co-development of Study Design for Pulmonary Treatment Research. J Clin Transl Sci. Under Review.
- Fibromyalgia and Music Project (FM MUSIC)
- Lepping RJ, McMillan ML, Chadwick AL, Mansour ZM, Martin LE, Gustafson KM. Autonomic nervous system markers of music-elicited analgesia in people with fibromyalgia: A double-blind randomized pilot study. Front Pain Res (Lausanne). 2022;3:953118. doi: 10.3389/fpain.2022.953118. eCollection 2022. PubMed PMID: 36185772; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9521378.
- Sound-Evoked Emotion in Depression Project (SEED)
- Lepping RJ, Atchley RA, Savage CR. Development of a validated emotionally provocative musical stimulus set for research. Psychology of music. 2016 September; 44(5):1012-28. doi: doi: 10.1177/0305735615604509.
- Lepping RJ, Atchley RA, Chrysikou E, Martin LE, Clair AA, Ingram RE, Simmons WK, Savage CR. Neural Processing of Emotional Musical and Nonmusical Stimuli in Depression. PLoS One. 2016;11(6):e0156859. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156859. eCollection 2016. PubMed PMID: 27284693; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4902194.
- Atchley RA, Ilardi SS, Young KM, Stroupe NN, O'Hare AJ, Bistricky SL, Collison E, Gibson L, Schuster J, Lepping RJ. Depression reduces perceptual sensitivity for positive words and pictures. Cogn Emot. 2012;26(8):1359-70. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2012.660134. Epub 2012 Jun 1. PubMed PMID: 22650378.