December Update from Daniel

While this month has been a bit quiet for the MINDS website, Ekaterina and I have been hard at work with continuing to build and promote this network.

MINDS on Stage

A couple of days ago, I presented at the annual Digital Music Research Network Workshop. While I’m not researching in the area of digital music, it was very interesting to hear from lots of great researchers in areas from AI music generation to Eurovision predictions.

In my short presentation I spoke personally about what neurodiversity inclusion in research, particularly from a digital music perspective, could look like, followed by an introduction to MINDS, with an invitation for people to engage further. For those interested further, I’ve included an abstract below:

Through digital music, autistic people can be provided with a therapeutic technique to manage wellbeing and social interaction [1,2]; individuals with ADHD may benefit from timing perception and regulation training through rhythm-based music integration in serious video games [3]; and those with Tourette’s syndrome may experience a reduction in tics [4]. But, as noted eloquently by Dobesh et al. [5], one of the main goals of such research is “to reduce stereotyped behavior”. Dobesh et al. were talking about music therapy for autistic people, but the sentiment holds for many of the papers discussed in the reviews above.

While there is little doubt that many neurodivergent people would appreciate help with managing their experiences, many technological solutions take the approach of trying to fix or cure a symptom [6] – particularly putting the emphasis on the neurodivergent individual to change. However, when neurodivergent people are involved in the process from the beginning, in line with Le’s [7] tenets, the final result can be greatly improved.

MINDS hopes to give practical support to researchers to include neurodivergent people in their research, as well as communicating relevant work to this group (an important first step in rebuilding trust in research practices [8]). Through this talk, I hope to share the importance of the inclusion of neurodivergent people in research that affects them, as well as to hear how colleagues have put this in practice in their own work for others to learn from.

What delighted me most was the number of fellow researchers who came up after and shared their experiences of neurodivergence and their own research projects. It was lovely to see that lots of colleagues were interested in our work.

Future Events

Since our inception, the “Events” tab at the top of this website returns a rather empty page. But soon… that will change! If you’ve made it this far, we’re excited to let you know that we have been awarded the Enhancing Research & Innovation Cultures Fund at Queen Mary University of London.

This fund will go towards running a couple of workshop events throughout the first half of next year. We will provide a safe, accessible, and neurodiversity-affirming space to meet and network with colleagues, experts in neurodivergence, and other neurodivergent people. We’d love to have speakers along who can talk about their research, their experiences of neurodivergence, or even a challenge they’ve encountered.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, even just to attend, then please keep an eye out for future details – and please do get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions.

I hope you have a splendid winter break!
Daniel

References

[1] G. Ragone, J. Good, and K. Howland, “How Technology Applied to Music-Therapy and Sound-Based Activities Addresses Motor and Social Skills in Autistic Children,” Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, vol. 5, no. 3, p. 11, Mar. 2021, number: 3 Publisher: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. [Online]. Available: https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/5/3/11

[2] D. Johnston, H. Egermann, and G. Kearney, “Innovative computer technology in music-based interventions for individuals with autism moving beyond traditional interactive music therapy techniques,” Cogent Psychology, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 1554773, Dec. 2018, publisher: Cogent OA. [Online]. Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/ 10.1080/23311908.2018.1554773

[3] M. Martin-Moratinos, M. Bella-Fern´andez, and H. Blasco-Fontecilla, “Effects of Music on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Potential Application in Serious Video Games: Systematic Review,” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 25, no. 1, p. e37742, May 2023, company: Journal of Medical Internet Research Distributor: Journal of Medical Internet Research Institution: Journal of Medical Internet Research Label: Journal of Medical Internet Research Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc., Toronto, Canada. [Online]. Available: https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e37742

[4] S. Scataglini, G. Andreoni, M. Fusca, and M. Porta, “Effect of Rhythmic Music Auditory Stimulation On Tics Modulation in Tourette Syndrome: A Case Study,” Open access Journal of Neurology & Neurosurgery, vol. 5, Aug. 2017.

[5] S. Dobesh, J. Albert, S. Ahmed, and M. Sharmin, “Moving Towards an Accessible Approach to Music Therapy for Autistic People: A Systematic Review,” in 2023 IEEE 47th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), June 2023, pp. 472–480, iSSN: 0730-3157. [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10196942

[6] K. Spiel and K. Gerling, “The Purpose of Play: How HCI Games Research Fails Neurodivergent Populations,” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 1–40, Apr. 2021. [Online]. Available: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3432245

[7] L. Le, “”I Am Human, Just Like You”: What Intersectional, Neurodivergent Lived Experiences Bring to Accessibility Research,” Aug. 2024, arXiv:2408.04500 [cs]. [Online]. Available: http: //arxiv.org/abs/2408.04500

[8] S. Fletcher-Watson, K. Brook, S. Hallett, F. Murray, and C. J.
Crompton, “Inclusive Practices for Neurodevelopmental Research,” Current Developmental Disorders Reports, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 88–97, June 2021. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/ s40474-021-00227-z