Dr. Frank A. Russo
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Biography
Frank A. Russo is a Professor of Psychology and Media Design Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also affiliate scientist at KITE (Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network) and adjunct professor in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Toronto. In his Science of Music Auditory Research and Technology (SMART) Lab, he conducts basic research on the biological, cognitive, and social-emotional bases of music and speech. He also engages in applied research concerning music-based interventions through collaborations with community-based groups, government, and industry. Successful translations of his research include a Canadian train-horn standard, a sensory substitution technology, an algorithm for supporting music perception through hearing aids, and the SingWell project, a research network committed to understanding, informing, and inspiring choirs for individuals living with communication challenges. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, Massey College, and the Canadian Society for Brain, Behavior and Cognitive Science. He is also a past-president of the Canadian Acoustical Association.
Selected Publications
Perron, M., Shatzer, H., Zara, M., Russo, F. A. (2025). Age-related increased frontal activation in sentence comprehension reflects inefficiency, not compensation. Neurobiology of Aging, 155, 100-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2025.07.014 (external link)
Mallik, A., Raessi, T., Good, A., Pachete, A., & Russo, F. (2025). Group singing and its effect on cortisol, alpha amylase, oxytocin and pain threshold in patients with Parkinson's disease. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 19, 1569601. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1569601 (external link)
Good, A., Vezer, E., Gilmore, S., Livingstone, S., & Russo, F. A. (2023). Community choir improves vocal production measures in individuals living with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Voice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.12.001 (external link)
Russo, F. A., Mallik, A., Thomson, Z., deRaadt, A., Dupuis, K., & Cohen, D. (2023). Developing a music-based digital therapeutic to help manage the neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia. Frontiers in Digital Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2023.1064115 (external link)
Mallik, A., & Russo, F. A. (2022). The effects of music & auditory beat stimulation on anxiety: A randomized clinical trial. PloS one, 17(3), e0259312. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0259312 (external link)
Good, A., & Russo, F. A. (2021). Changes in mood, oxytocin, and cortisol following group and individual singing: A pilot study. Psychology of Music. https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356211042668 (external link)
Gilmore, S. A., & Russo, F. A. (2021). Neural and Behavioral Evidence for Vibrotactile Beat Perception and Bimodal Enhancement. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 33(4), 635-650. https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article/33/4/635/97411/Neural-and-Behavioral-Evidence-for-Vibrotactile (external link)
Dubinsky, E., Wood, E. A., Nespoli, G., & Russo, F. A. (2019). Short-term choir singing supports speech-in-noise perception and neural pitch strength in older adults with age-related hearing loss. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 13, 1153. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.01153/full (external link)
Livingstone, S. R., & Russo, F. A. (2018). The Ryerson Audio-Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song (RAVDESS): A dynamic, multimodal set of facial and vocal expressions in North American English. PLoS ONE 13(5): e0196391. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196391 (external link)
Goy, H., Pichora-Fuller, M. K., Singh, G., & Russo, F. A. (2018). Hearing Aids Benefit Recognition of Words in Emotional Speech but Not Emotion Identification. Trends in Hearing, 22. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30249171/ (external link)
Good, A., Choma, B., & Russo, F.A. (2017). Movement synchrony influences intergroup relations in a minimal groups paradigm. Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 39(4), 231-238. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2017.1337015 (external link)
Sandstrom, G. M., & Russo, F. A. (2013). Absorption in music: A scale to identify individuals with strong emotional responses to music, Psychology of Music, 41, 216 - 228. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2013-10964-004 (external link)