Karen Barrett, PhD
Assistant Professor
Institute for Health & Aging
School of Nursing

Karen Chan Barrett, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Institute for Health & Aging at the UCSF School of Nursing and the Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery at the School of Medicine.

Show full bio (140 words) Hide full bio

She is an Auditory Cognitive Neuroscientist, and her research interests include the neuroscience of artistic creativity, music perception in cochlear implant users, and music, aging, and health.

Dr. Barrett has also taught as collegiate faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, co-teaching a Music and the Brain class with Dr. Indre Viskontas (2019-2022). Before moving to San Francisco in the Spring of 2016, Dr. Barrett served as adjunct faculty at Peabody Institute of Music and Johns Hopkins University, teaching introductory music cognition seminars to graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Barrett received her Ph.D. in Music Theory and Cognition from Northwestern University in March 2015. Dr. Barrett's graduate work used perceptual and neural experiments (EEG) to study attention to complex multivoiced music as well as the impact of musical training on neural plasticity.

Education & Training

Show all (4) Hide

• Ph.D. Music Cognition and Theory, Bienen School of Music Northwestern University
• M.Mus Musicology Peabody Institute of Music at Johns Hopkins University
• M.Mus Piano Peabody Institute of Music at Johns Hopkins University
• B.A. Music and Neuroscience Wellesley College

Interests

Show all (8) Hide

• music and aging
• music and neural plasticity
• data analysis
• neuroscience of creativity and improvisation
• cochlear implants
• data science
• musical talent
• music and health

Websites

Show all (3) Hide

• UCSF Sound and Music Perception Lab (ohns.ucsf.edu)
• Sound Health Network (soundhealth.ucsf.edu)
• My professional site (karenchanbarrett.com)

Grants and Projects

Show all (5) Hide

• Sound Health Network, National Endowment for the Arts, 2020-2025
• Feasibility and Acceptability Testing of a Culturally Tailored Music Therapy Intervention for Persons Living with Dementia and their Care Partners, UCSF School of Nursing Research Committee Intramural Grant, 2024-2025
• Improvisation Across Art Forms, National Endowment for the Arts: Research Labs, 2018-2024
• Impact of Music Improvisation Training on Brain Function and Cognition among Older Adults, NIH/NIA, 2023-2024
• Impact of Music Improvisation Training on Brain Function and Cognition among Older Adults, NIH, 2021-2023

Publications (13)

Top publication keywords:
Limbic SystemMusicHearingPsychomotor PerformanceCreativityNerve NetConnectomeEvoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain StemCochlear ImplantationSpeech PerceptionCerebral CortexCochlear ImplantsAuditory PerceptionPitch PerceptionDeafness

• Predictors of Emotional Prosody Identification by School-Age Children With Cochlear Implants and Their Peers With Normal Hearing.
  Ear and hearing 2023 Chatterjee M, Gajre S, Kulkarni AM, Barrett KC, Limb CJ
• Cochlear Implant Compression Optimization for Musical Sound Quality in MED-EL Users.
  Ear and hearing 2022 Gilbert ML, Deroche MLD, Jiradejvong P, Chan Barrett K, Limb CJ
• Multi-Voiced Music Bypasses Attentional Limitations in the Brain.
  Frontiers in neuroscience 2021 Barrett KC, Ashley R, Strait DL, Skoe E, Limb CJ, Kraus N
• Perception of Child-Directed Versus Adult-Directed Emotional Speech in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users.
  Ear and hearing 2020 Barrett KC, Chatterjee M, Caldwell MT, Deroche MLD, Jiradejvong P, Kulkarni AM, Limb CJ
• Impact of Auditory-Motor Musical Training on Melodic Pattern Recognition in Cochlear Implant Users.
  Otology & neurotology : official publication of the American Otological Society, American Neurotology Society [and] European Academy of Otology and Neurotology 2020 Chari DA, Barrett KC, Patel AD, Colgrove TR, Jiradejvong P, Jacobs LY, Limb CJ

Show all (8 more) Hide

• Encyclopedia of Creativity. Volume 1. Runco, M. Pritzker, S. (Eds),
  Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and the Neural Correlates of Artistic Creative Production. 2020 Chan Barrett, K., Limb, C.J.
• Classical creativity: A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation of pianist and improviser Gabriela Montero.
  NeuroImage 2019 Barrett KC, Barrett FS, Jiradejvong P, Rankin SK, Landau AT, Limb CJ
• Unveiling artistic minds: case studies of creativity.
  Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2019 Karen Chan Barrett, Charles J. Limb
• Association Between Flat-Panel Computed Tomographic Imaging-Guided Place-Pitch Mapping and Speech and Pitch Perception in Cochlear Implant Users.
  JAMA otolaryngology-- head & neck surgery 2019 Jiam NT, Gilbert M, Cooke D, Jiradejvong P, Barrett K, Caldwell M, Limb CJ
• A tonal-language benefit for pitch in normally-hearing and cochlear-implanted children.
  Scientific reports 2019 Deroche MLD, Lu HP, Kulkarni AM, Caldwell M, Barrett KC, Peng SC, Limb CJ, Lin YS, Chatterjee M
• Dance and Music in "Gangnam Style": How Dance Observation Affects Meter Perception.
  PloS one 2015 Lee KM, Barrett KC, Kim Y, Lim Y, Lee K
• Art and science: how musical training shapes the brain.
  Frontiers in psychology 2013 Barrett KC, Ashley R, Strait DL, Kraus N
• Specialization among the specialized: auditory brainstem function is tuned in to timbre.
  Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior 2011 Strait DL, Chan K, Ashley R, Kraus N