Clara James

Function: Privat-Docent

Group name: Geneva Musical Minds Lab (GEMMI lab)

Group type: Main

Affiliations: Faculty of Psychology and Science of Education

Domains: Development and Plasticity, Sensory and Motor Systems, Perception, Attention and Cognition

Keywords: age-related cognitive decline, artistic training regimens, child development, experience driven brain plasticity, musical and physical training regimens

Research activities

The Geneva Musical Minds Laboratory examines how music, psychomotor, and arts-based practices can support cognitive and brain development across the lifespan.

Early fundamental research showed that greater musical training intensity is associated with progressive changes in cognition and brain structure in young adults (https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/125050).

In healthy older adults, an RCT (https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/170410) showed that musical training, particularly piano practice, mitigated age-related cognitive and cerebral decline. In patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, an Alzheimer Suisse–funded RCT demonstrated distinct benefits of music compared with psychomotor training (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03678-0).

In children, research on the “Orchestra in Class” program revealed broad cognitive and sensorimotor benefits in 10–12-year-olds (https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00567). Building on this work, a new two-year SNF-funded RCT (https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/214977) examines the cognitive and cerebral effects of collective art training (Orchestra in Class vs. Visual Arts) in 6–8-year-olds relative to the standard curriculum.

Together, these projects position the lab at the forefront of cognitive neuroscience research on musical engagement across diverse ages and cognitive states.

Site web du groupe

Key publications

Cognitive enrichment through art: a randomized controlled trial on the effect of music or visual arts group practice on cognitive and brain development of young children

James CE, Tingaud M, Laera G, Guedj C, Zuber S, Diambrini Palazzo R, Vukovic S, Richiardi J, Kliegel M, Marie D

BMC Complement Med Ther 2024, 24(1):141

Increased functional connectivity in the right dorsal auditory stream after a full year of piano training in healthy older adults

Junemann K, Engels A, Marie D, Worschech F, Scholz DS, Grouiller F, Kliegel M, Van De Ville D, Altenmuller E, Kruger THC, James CE, Sinke C

Sci Rep 2023, 13(1):19993

Quality of life in older adults is enhanced by piano practice: Results from a randomized controlled trial

Worschech F, Marie D, Sinke C, Kliegel M, Jünemann K, Scholz DS, Krüger TH, James CE, Altenmüller E

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2025

Tracking Training-Related Plasticity by Combining fMRI and DTI: The Right Hemisphere Ventral Stream Mediates Musical Syntax Processing

Oechslin, M. S., Gschwind, M., & James, C. E

Cereb Cortex, 28(4), 1209-1218, 2018

See the complete list of the publications

Contact

Faculté de psychologie
Université de Genève
Haute Ecole de Santé de Genève HES-SO
Email: clara.james@hesge.ch/clara.james@unige.ch