The Grady Trauma Project team at Emory University has collaborated with the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University to put in an application for a Dana Foundation Neuroscience and Society Center grant. The center will focus on reshaping and transforming the science and treatment of trauma and stress-related conditions through initiatives in the areas of education, training, research, and community action. The mission of the Dana Foundation is to advance neuroscience that benefits society and reflects the aspirations of all people. Dana explores the connections between neuroscience and society’s challenges and opportunities, working to maximize the field's potential to do good. By listening and responding to people of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures—as well as professionals from other disciplines—the field will help improve the lives of individuals and communities.
The GSU/Emory Dana Center planning grant team held its first event in collaboration with the Trap Music Museum on January 25th, titled The Artist Talk.
See the video below
The event included a fireside chat with Artist Jean P. Icart-Pierre and Dr. Joya Hampton-Anderson, a psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and one of GTP’s long-term collaborators. They discussed his exhibit at the museum, which explores the contemporary Black psyche through an artist's lens and exposes what it means to be Black today through conversation.
During this event, The Grady Trauma Project team had the opportunity to showcase how eSense works. This small device attaches to the fingers and picks up skin conductance (the amount of sweat on the fingertips). This measures your body’s sympathetic arousal or the body’s alarm system that is activated when your body gets hyped or stressed (also known as fight or flight). Participants visiting the museum were invited to complete an exercise involving eSense. Participants were hooked up to the device and walked around the museum to measure their reaction (sympathetic nervous system) to the displayed artwork. Afterward, participants completed a mindfulness exercise with the eSense to show how you can bring that state of arousal back down and activate your calm or resting state (parasympathetic nervous system). This allows people to learn the full body experience of emotions and ways that we can actually control how our body responds to situations.
Be on the lookout for other events soon as we continue to partner with Trap Music Museum!