Music, Brain and Education Panel

Nina Kraus, Nadine Gaab, Mariale Hardiman and Roger Bingham

Date:	March 24, 2011
Run Time:	37 minutes
Speakers:	Nina Kraus, Nadine Gaab, Mariale Hardiman, Roger Bingham

Nina Kraus is Professor of Neurobiology & Physiology, Otolaryngology, and the Hugh Knowles Chair in Audiology at Northwestern University. She investigates the neurobiology underlying speech and music perception and learning-associated brain plasticity. She studies normal listeners throughout the lifespan, clinical populations (poor-readers; autism; hearing loss), and musicians. Her method of assessing the brain’s encoding of sounds has been adapted as BioMARK (biological marker of auditory processing), a commercial product that helps educators and clinicians better diagnose learning disabilities.

Nadine Gaab is assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. She investigates the development of the human auditory system using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a special focus on the influence of auditory training on brain plasticity in children and adults with language and reading impairments, musicians, and a variety of psychiatric populations.

Recently appointed as interim dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Dr. Mariale Hardiman joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins in 2006 as Assistant Dean of Urban School Partnerships and Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies after serving in the Baltimore City Public School System for more than 30 years. As the principal of Roland Park Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore, Dr. Hardiman led the school to its designation as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. During her tenure as principal, Dr. Hardiman devised a teaching framework, The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model, which connects research-based effective instruction with elements from the brain sciences to inform teaching and learning. Continuing her interest of bringing to educators relevant findings from the brain sciences, Dr. Hardiman collaborated with colleagues from across the University and community to develop the JHU School of Education’s Neuro-Education Initiative, supported by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Brain Science Institute.