After a career as a musician and music educator Bruce completed a doctoral study that investigated electrophysiological processes in music cognition. His recent work includes the study of Alzheimer’s disease patients’ physiological responses to music. This work aims to determine whether there are objective indices of the reported benefits of music therapy that may help in designing music intervention protocols. Bruce is a member of the pain research group and is involved in studies that aim to elucidate the impact of memory loss and other cognitive deficits on the experience of pain, its diagnosis and treatment.
Research Areas
With a background as a musician and music educator at The University of Melbourne Bruce undertook his doctoral study at NARI. This study used electroencephalographic methods to investigate brain functions underlying music cognition. Since being awarded his PhD he has been at NARI as a Research Fellow. His research areas focus on two dementia related areas – the assessment and treatment of pain in those with dementia and the evaluation of complementary therapies aimed at managing dementia symptoms.
Current Projects
Bruce is currently investigating the effects of ageing and dementia on perceptual, attentional and cognitive processing as represented by evoked potential measures of brain function. A major goal of this research has been to evaluate the effects of complementary therapies using methods that meet criteria for evidence-based practice. A further goal is to determine how useful electrophysiological measures are as an objective measure of intervention-related changes in brain function.
His other major area of research has focused on pain in older people who have dementia. With Professor Stephen Gibson he has examined changes in pain thresholds in ageing and dementia, central nervous system processing of pain in people with dementia, the relationship between pain, anxiety and depression and the assessment of pain in people who have lost the ability to communicate verbally.
Teaching Areas
Bruce is supervising three doctoral students and two honours students. The doctoral studies are using diverse methodological approaches to the evaluation of the effects of music and artistic creative and executive processes on the symptomatology of dementia. In collaboration with Dr Samia Toukhsati at Monash University, his honours students are studying the effects of complementary therapies on depressive symptoms and the effect of depression on pain perception. In the past, he has taught music at all levels from primary to tertiary. Since joining NARI he provides occasional lectures in music psychology at Melbourne and Monash universities. He had a lead role in the development of the first TAFE degree program in Australia – the Bachelor of Applied Music at Box Hill Institute (2004) where he continues as Chair of the Music Advisory Committee.
Publications:
Barber, J.B., & Gibson, S.J., (2009) Treatment pof chronic non-malignant pain in the elderly: safety considerations, Drug safety, 32(6), 457-474
Barber, Bruce. Music in the Treatment of Pain, Newsletter of The Pain in Older People Special Interest Group of The International Association for the Study of Pain Quarterly Newsletter. (2008) July
Leonie J. Cole, Michael J. Farrell, Eugene P. Duff, Bruce J. Barber, Gary F. Egan, Stephen J. Gibson. (2006) Pain sensitivity and fMRI pain-related brain activity in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain Nov;129 (Pt 11):2957-65. Epub 2006 Sep 2.
Lints-Martindale, A.C., Hadjistavropoulos, T., Barber, B., & Gibson, S.J., A psychophysical investigation of the facial action coding system as an index of pain variability among older adults with and without Alzheimer’s disease. Pain Medicine, 8(8), 678-689.
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