ShellyMind: Where Science Meets Art

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Michelle Marquez created a unique experience specially for the audience at TEDxYouth@RVA and we are now able to share it with the world. Watch how she takes us on a journey that illustrates her idea of how science intersects magnificently with the world of art.

Michelle Marquez is a fifteen-year-old sophomore at the Math & Science High School at Clover Hill in Midlothian, VA. She has developed a passion for understanding the human perceptions of art using scientific correlations. Michelle discovered the mathematical structure of sounds that triggers selective emotions. She was able to prove that certain types of music affect the brain and that the responses may have an evolutionary and biological basis. Michelle’s research provides a new foundation for how music therapy can work in treating symptoms of mood, neurological, and anxiety disorders such as PTSD and attention deficit disorder.

Michelle is an award-winning scientist at the Metro Richmond STEM Fair, Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, and a First Place & Best of Category winner in Behavioral Science at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, California. She was recently interviewed by Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN’s “Vital Signs” about her award-winning research. A newly discovered asteroid will be named after Michelle by MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program. She is also the founder of an Out-of-the-Box neuroscience initiative that explores and promotes a transdisciplinary blend of Arts and STEM fields looking for a place “Where Science Meets Art”.