I’ve been back from the PAMA symposium for about 2 weeks or so, but it hardly feels that way as I’ve had a lot to mull over. Here’s a couple of impressions:

- There were so many interesting lectures, so many, in fact, that it was hard to attend to them all as there was a new speaker every 15-30 minutes! As coordinator Dr. John Chong said, though, it was meant to be like a buffet. We weren’t expected to be interested in or like everything, but there would definitely be things to enjoy for everyone.

- Dr. Gabor Mate, author of When the Body Says No, was a fantastic speaker. His main points were that in his experience as a general practitioner, he saw unexpressed stress and emotions as the true generators of disease, with the traditional risk factors (smoking, unhealthy diet, etc.) as exacerbating factors. He pointed out that the “nicest” people can be the worst repressors of their true needs, and thus can be at high risk for illness.

- Dr. Gottfried Schlaug presented on his research on the changes music can make in the brain (neuroplasticity). He showed some videos of music being used to facilitate speaking in a person with damage from a stroke to the left hemisphere speech area (Broca’s aphasia) and in a child with autism. The learners started with singing a phrase and then progressing to speaking it with inflection. He also spoke about the changes found to occur in the brain from studying music (yay!), among many other things.

- Marshall Chasin of www.musiciansclinics.com presented on hearing loss in musicians. Exposure to over 85 decibels for 40 hours/week will cause eventual hearing loss, a level common in orchestras and practice rooms. Decibel meters to measure sound exposure can be downloaded as an app (search app store for “free decibel meter), and Etymotic is one manufacturer of hearing protection earplugs.

It sure didn’t hurt that the conference was in Aspen, CO and that our entrance fee included standby tickets to the Aspen Music Festival!