Researcher of the Month
September 2014
Jay Loomis
Music major, Class of 2015
Angela & Dexter Bailey - URECA Summer 2014 Award recipient
Research Mentor: Dr. Margaret Schedel, Dr. Daniel Weymouth, Music; Dr. Lisa Muratori, Dr. Erin Vasudevan,
Physical Therapy
This spring, Jay Loomis was selected from the pool of talented URECA summer applicants to receive the inaugural Angela and Dexter Bailey – URECA award to support his research over the summer. Jay’s project is on “Real-Time Auditory Feedback for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease: Overcoming Akinesia
with Music” — an interdisciplinary project involving Prof. Margaret Schedel, Prof. Daniel Weymouth of
the Department of Musicand the Consortium for Digital Arts, Culture and Technology
(cDACT); and Prof. Lisa Muratori, Prof. Erin Vasudevan, and Peter Marcote of the Physical
Therapy Department.
The goal of the project is to use sonification to develop individual auditory cues
based on gait specific motion analysis data – and to use the information in a biofeedback
system so that individuals with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) can use external sound cues
to self-correct impaired gait patterns. As part of the preparation for the clinical
test phase which will begin this fall, Jay became very familiar with the Lemur app
for iPad to design the user interface – and with MAX-MSP software to collect numerical
data from the iPad. The team presented their initial research on the interdisciplinary
project as a poster at the Music, Mind, Meaning Conference at John Hopkins University
this past January; and Jay also presented a poster at URECA’s campus-wide symposium last
April.
Currently a music major at SB, Jay came to the project already with a broad array
of talents and experiences in hand. His first bachelor’s degree was from Wheaton College,
IL where he graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1997. Subsequently between 2000-2008,
Jay taught English in Madrid, Spain; Mexico City, Mexico; and Xi' An, China. Jay became
seriously involved with music in the early 2000s, when he lived in Madrid and would
listen to Irish musicians play in a pub. He took up the bodhrán, as well as the flute;
he also started to collect flutes and wind instruments from different parts of the
world. Since coming to SB, Jay has been involved with SB theater productions (MacBath,
Timon of Athens, Hamlet); Parrish Art Museum openings; and numerous music performances
(e.g. jazz combo concerts, SB Composers concert, sonic spring electronic music concert).
He is the recipient of the Arthur Lambert Memorial Scholarship for a music student.
Last fall, Jay co-performed and presented alongside Tim Vallier a composition called
“Limbic Hemispheres”at the TEDxSBU conference. Jay has also worked as an arts and crafts coordinator at Camp De Wolfe in Wading
River; as an Events coordinator at the Craft Center at SB; and recently interned/volunteered
at the SBU Freedom School in Summers 2013 and 2014. From 2009 to the present, Jay
also worked part-time as a care provider at an AHRC group home for adults with developmental
disabilities (including motion and movement disabilities), an experience which prepared
him well for the current research project.
With wide-ranging interests in sonification, music therapy, ethnomusicology, jazz,
and instrument construction, Jay currently plans to apply for PhD programs in musicology
or ethnomusicology.Below are excerpts of his conversation with Karen Kernan, URECA Director.
Karen. What was your URECA project this past summer?
Jay. This summer, we worked on developing an experiment so that we can determine if people
with Parkinson’s disease (PD) can effectively hear differences in sounds—particularly
distorted sounds — and then use external cues (sound) to help correct their gait.
We designed an experiment where participants use sliders on an iPad to change the
amount of distortion they hear while listening to music (Jazz, Bluegrass, Classical,
Pop, Rock, Country, Electronic). Our premise is that if people with PD can hear the
distortion and correct it by using sliders, then they will also be able to hear the
distorted sound as an indication of an abnormality in their gait and correct it by
changing the way they are walking. We are nearly ready to do clinical trials with
50 participants.
That sounds ambitious. What are some of the challenges in your work?
We had to figure out how we can make a linear slider on an iPad imitate a non-linear
action (a problem with gait). We used the Lemur app for iPad so that the participants
can change the amount of distortion that they hear while listening to music. The distorted
sound would increase, or decrease, or plateau or disappear altogether depending on
where the participants were moving their fingers with the slider. Figuring out how
to design the user interface to imitate a person whose gait was getting skewed wasn’t
easy — but we did it. The next step after that will be developing testing using external
cues for PD patients who are walking on a treadmill.
Have you started the clinical/testing phase of the project?
That’s what we want to do this semester. This past summer we focused on developing
the test. We have tests where we have different music, and different ways to distort
the music. We can make it sound muffled, really echoey…or we can make it sound staticy-
or we can also make it sound like a record player that is skipping. Each one of these
different sonic/auditory distortions would be used to indicate a different problem
that PD patients can have while they’re walking. We have the tests prepared and now
we need to see if people with PD can hear the distortions as well as we can. It will
be exciting to start the testing – hopefully it will go as smoothly as we anticipate.
I really wanted to test patients this summer — but in 10 weeks it’s hard to accomplish
everything you set out to do. I had to shift my expectations but also see that the
experimentation that we developed this summer is an essential step to make the difference
in the overall project. I learned that we need to go step by step. I guess that patience and perseverance
is one of the big things I learned this summer.
How did you first become involved with the project?
My advisor for this project is Prof. Margaret Schedel – and she does a lot with sound
and technology (she’s also a composer). I first learned about this project from Tim
Vallier, a graduate student in the Music Department. He told me about how they were
using sound, motion detectors, to help people with PD improve their gait. Right away
I asked Dr. Schedel if I could be involved, because I thought it sounded really interesting…
I started reading up on the project, having conversations and then went over the lab
– and Dr. Schedel introduced me to Dr. Muratori who runs the Physical Therapy part
of the project. This was ~ 3 semesters ago. And I have really loved being part of
this team. It was exciting to see these different perspectives (from Music, from Physical
Therapy) come together.
We met regularly – the whole team--throughout the summer, and at each meeting we set
a goal and we met it. And if we didn’t meet it, we figured out how to fix it. The
cooperation, the interaction, the rapport – it has all been really great. I liked
seeing how a project like this one can bring departments together, and how music can
coordinate with the health sciences to improve the quality of life of people with
mental and physical disabilities.
What was one of the most surprising things you’ve learned?
I’m definitely more of a musician than a scientist. So I was surprised to find out
how important one line of data can be in terms of measuring the progress that a person
can make while they’re correcting the distorted sound. I remember that at one point
when we were collecting numbers to measure where you move the slider, I thought the
numbers we had would be enough. But I learned that “No, we need the x and y axis number”….and
why these additional numbers were important. It was good for me to see that the scientific
mind was different than the musical mind. And that together we could come to an understanding
of how the project would work.
Scientists know how to talk to scientists. And musicians know how to talk to musicians.
And sometimes, even though we have common vocabularies and there are obviously areas
of overlap, it would take a little extra explaining to figure out the different perspectives
– from the music side, and from the physical therapy side. But we had clear goals.
And we knew what we wanted to accomplish. So as a whole, it worked as an educational
research team should work and it has been a great experience for me to be a part of
it.
Is it difficult to balance research and classes?
Yes, it is. Which is why the summer was awesome. The Bailey-URECA grant was super
helpful. I didn’t have to work any of my part time jobs which was great. During the
semesters, I work at AHRC part time. I also work here on campus in the Craft Center.
Sometimes I do some tutoring in Spanish. ( I’m fluent in Spanish, I lived in Spain
for several years.)…but I didn’t’ have to do any of that this summer. I could just
focus on this project. It takes a lot of time- the reading, the research, the meetings,
the preparation. And I had a big learning curve with one program, MaxMSP, an audio-processing
program that I needed to use for the project. I really needed the time this summer
to really focus on learning all these programs.
Now that classes have started again, it's very busy.... I have a full load, with two
graduate classes and I’m also curating a show at the SAC Gallery this semester. My
part time jobs have come back as well… It was a dream having that time over the summer,
and the support of the Bailey award, to get further along in the project.
What are your future plans?
A PhD in Musicology – or ethnomusicology. I’ve travelled a lot. I taught English in
Spain, and Mexico, and China after my first degree. I’m very interested in other cultures
and music from other cultures, just different ways that people approach education,
music, art– and science too.
Did you foresee having the kind of involvement in an interdisciplinary project when
you first came to SB?
Not at all –but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I worked at the
AHRC 6 years or so. And to think that from music together with science and physical
therapy – that we could create a project that some of these people I know personally
could benefit from is really exciting.
I decided long ago not to go into medicine, but I have always had one ear/eye in the
world of medicine. And I do like to approach the sciences through the arts. Even before
I enrolled here, I had been to SB plenty of times with my great uncle who had health
problems. We’d go to SB, to the hospital – and it was kind of cool coming back to
SB as a student, and being a part of the scientific medical world over here. And then
I worked at AHRC and spent a lot of time with people with physical and mental disabilities
and had great contact with people who could benefit from something like this. I didn’t
expect to be involved in a project like this but when the opportunity came up, I definitely
wanted to do it!