Brain can "close eyes" to listen to music

Brain 'closes eyes' to hear music

Our brains can turn down our ability to see to help them listen even harder to music and complex sounds, say experts.
A US study of 20 non-musicians and 20 musical conductors found both groups diverted brain activity away from visual areas during listening tasks.

Scans showed activity fell in these areas as it rose in auditory ones.

But during harder tasks the changes were less marked for conductors than for non-musicians, researchers told a Society for Neuroscience conference.



“ Imagine the difference between listening to someone talk in a quiet room, and that same discussion in a noisy room - you don't see as much of what's going on in the noisy room ”
Dr Jonathan Burdette
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
The researchers, from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the University of North Carolina, used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which can measure real-time changes in brain activity based on the blood flow to different areas of the brain.

Previous research has identified various parts of the brain involved in vision and hearing.

The experiment involved 20 professional orchestral conductors or band leaders and 20 musically untrained students, all aged between 28 and 40.

While lying in the scanner, they were asked to listen to two different musical tones played a few thousandths of a second apart and identify which was played first.

The task was made harder for the professional musicians than for the non-musicians, to allow for the differences in their background.

What the scientists found was that while activity rose, as expected, in the auditory part of the brain, it correspondingly fell in the visual part.

As the task was made harder and harder, the non-musicians carried on diverting more and more activity away from the visual parts of the brain to the auditory side, as they struggled to concentrate.

However, after a certain point, the conductors did not suppress their brains, suggesting that their years of training had provided a distinct advantage in the way their brains were organised.

Finely-tuned brains

Dr Jonathan Burdette, who led the study, said: "This is like closing your eyes to listen to music.

"Imagine the difference between listening to someone talk in a quiet room and that same discussion in a noisy room - you don't see as much of what's going on in the noisy room."

Another researcher, Dr David Hairston, said that the study showed just how flexible this ability was.

"How this operates can change with highly specialised training and experience," he said.

Dr Bahador Bahrami, from the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said the study showed the difference in "brain organisation" between musicians and non-musicians.

"It demonstrates the mechanisms developed in the brain in the face of distraction. The brains of the conductors are highly tuned to tones."


Story from BBC NEWS:

Do you know about "The Music Cortex"

Music and the brain! What could be more fascinating? The more we know about how music affects the brain, the more we can incorporate music into our wellness and healing practices. The following article is a fascinating; a first-person account of music and the brain. Enjoy!

The Music Cortex


Mr. Apron and I sat down at the kitchen table last night to enjoy our dinner of Exploding Pizza, the kind of crust that comes in a tube, and when you peel back the paper it kind of pops, and therefore contains a warning to point it away from your face. We call that Exploding Pizza. On the table was a brochure for Piffaro, a musical ensemble which performs renaissance and baroque music using period instruments, such as recorders, harps, shawms, and, my personal favorite, sackbuts. As I glanced at the various performance descriptions for 17th century Spanish music, I spied a familiar name in the November performance – the husband of a woman led my Early Music Ensemble in college. He came in a few times to support those of us brave enough to take on the shawms and dulcians, which are sort of proto-oboes and proto-bassoons, respectively. We obviously had to go.

“I love taking you to these performances, buddy,” said Mr. Apron as he made a mental note to take me to these performances, “but I hate that it always makes you so sad.”

My brain surgery left my body in less than optimal condition immediately after the surgery. While I’ve pretty much healed up in as much as spontaneous recovery and physical/occupation/speech therapy can do, there are subtle, sub-clinical deficits I still retain. When in the medical model, one refers to body function, whether it’s strength, range of motion, or activities you can do, in varying degrees of impairment, such as mildly, moderately, or severely impaired. In my case, I probably fit the description of WFL, three marvelous letters which stand for Within Functional Limits. This says, essentially, “This person or his body part is suited for all normal functions.” Not quite as gratifying as WNL, Within Normal Limits, WFL simply allows the medical professional to give a cursory assessment and determine that nothing significant is standing in the way of ADLs, (Activities of Daily Living): those happy life skills like dressing oneself; loading the dishwasher; using a spork; and running for/signaling at the SEPTA bus leaving the curb.

I am WFL. My body parts all work WFL. My once-paralyzed left arm, hand, and all five fingers are WFL. I can buckle my seat belt, cut up food with a knife, fasten a necklace, and open a door. My lips/mouth/tongue are WFL. I can chew food, move it around my mouth, form it into a swallow-able glob, and swallow it. I can find pesky pieces of lunch hidden in my cheeks, and I can use a napkin to locate detritus on my lower lip. I am WFL.

If you probe deeper, maybe compare pre- and post-surgery, you’ll see deficits. Maybe not in everyday function, but in measurable impairments. I have very little feeling in my lower lip, chin, and lower cheek on the left half of my face. My left fingertips perceive touch and temperature ever so slightly differently than those on my right hand. What this means for daily life is that sometimes I do miss a piece of food on my face, or drool if I’m sleeping on my left side (which I wouldn’t feel). My left hand might not be up to carrying a dresser long distances. All these differences would not matter for regular old ADLs, but they do matter for a musician.

Immediately after my surgery, my father, a psychiatrist who should have a good handle on brain function, approached my neurosurgeon with some concern regarding my “musical” ability. Now, in this century we’ve moved away from phrenology and believing concretely that lumps on the head/brain correspond to characteristics, strengths, and abilities, but there is emerging research into localization of some functions in the brain, made possible with fMRI, imaging which lights up in brighter colors which portions of the brain are active during certain tasks. I read an article once where the brain surgeons had to do surgery on a professional violinist while she was awake to make sure they had localized and avoided disturbing the “music center” while they operated. They stimulated portions of her brain and then asked her to play the violin to map out her brain during surgery. So my father, with his concerns about my “music center” was not completely out in left field. In fact, there’s a study at Harvard University which has discovered that certain parts of the auditory cortex are sensitive to aspects of music.

In the hospital I could do very little. I couldn’t sit up for any length of time without getting very dizzy and causing my already massive headache to throb even more. Finally, towards the end of the week I spent as an inpatient, I felt well enough to sit up. I tried to spend most of my days sitting up to prove to the nursing staff how much my constitution was improving so they’d let me go home.

My mother plays harp professionally. She plays a lot of weddings and church-related events such as midnight masses and Christmas concerts. She has also played for Mothers Day teas at yacht clubs, a Memorial Day event at a cemetery, and concerts for children. In addition to her concert-sized harp, she has a more portable version, which she brought with her to the hospital, to cheer me up, keep us all busy, and entertain the ward with strains of “If I only had a brain”. In an effort to appease my father’s worries, and for want of something to do that didn’t involve vision (I had double vision immediately after surgery which conveniently went away as soon as I made an appointment with an ophthalmologist 8 weeks later), I asked for the harp. Balancing it on the edge of the bed, cradling the harp between my knees, I propped myself up. My useless left arm lay at my side, but I was able to pluck out “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” with my right.

Behold! They had spared my “music center”! Not only had the post-operative angiogram shown no residual AVM; they had successfully left intact my musical abilities. Or so it seemed. At least my father was relieved.

Unfortunately, I did not have so much success with my other instruments. When I had regained a little function in my left hand (I became strong enough to lift a spice bottle), I tried the clarinet and the bassoon. My embouchure, the shape of the mouth and lips when playing a wind instrument, was weakened not only by months of disuse, but also was significantly affected by my new deficits. I couldn’t keep a seal on the mouthpiece of my clarinet, and spittle flew out of the left side of my mouth. Bassoon was no better. Even as the months wore on, and my strength improved measurably in therapy, I had no more success. Every time I would pick up my bassoon, I would collapse in tears, wailing as I sat in the living room, apologizing repeatedly to the beautiful (some might argue) instrument. My left hand, as “functional” as it was for the physiatrist, was still too weak to even hold the heft of the 7 pound instrument, let alone support the instrument with my palm and move all five fingers in rapid precise movements. Websites will tell you that bassoonists don’t actually have to feel the weight of their instruments because they’re supported by seat straps. While it’s true they’re not lifting 7 pounds constantly, they do have to hold up the top-heavy instrument as it leans ever so slightly to the left.

I can do all of the range of movement exercises with my facial muscles, and my left hand strength is now pretty good for a non-dominant hand, but it is nowhere near agile enough to play a musical instrument. The rapid movements, the precision, the muscle memory needed for arpeggios, for reaching all of the 17 keys on a bassoon, for sealing the holes of the instrument…I just don’t have those abilities.

When we go to a concert, be it classical music, early music, Indonesian music, or any other genre or instrument I have played, I get sad. I think of how I used to play, used to be in ensembles and have concerts, and go out for Dairy Queen afterwards. I have been in marching bands of 100 pimply teenagers, chamber orchestras made up of physicians, school bands, wind ensembles, early music ensembles, quartets, and summer orchestras large enough to have 8 bassoonists and 40 flautists. With varying degrees of proficiency, I have played piano, recorder, harp, bassoon, clarinet, bari sax, dulcian, krumhorn, viola da gamba, cello, and gamelan (Indonesian percussion) instruments.

I wish I could pick an instrument back up. It’s been so long now that I’d have an uphill battle to relearn the instrument as well as reteach my hands how to play. I avoid even trying. I keep my bassoon locked up in the basement, where I don’t have to think about it. When I pluck out notes on a piano to help Mr. Apron learn his music for plays, I keep my left hand in my lap, ashamed to try to use it. It would be so hard now that I don’t even try. That if I did, it would be so difficult I would get frustrated and give up. The sadness also stems from the fact that, if you hadn’t gathered from my list of instruments and ensembles, music was a pretty big part of my life until my surgery. It’s also a pretty significant part of my family’s life.

My mother, as I mentioned, is a harpist. She is also a pianist. My brother dabbled in drums for a while before returning to piano, his first instrument. Last time I checked, he had completed his college majors in physics and music, ripping through sonatas and pop songs at the speed of lightning. My sister, too, started with piano, and branched off into brass, picking up the trumpet, mainly, but also trying out the euphonium. She also plays the shofar annually at my parents’ synagogue’s High Holy Days celebration, blasting the announcement of the holiday from the ram’s horn for all to hear. My father, though never quite reaching proficiency on the piano, stuck with woodwind instruments. He started with clarinet, as did I, and then moved to bassoon, as did I. I followed his path, waiting for my hands to grow even a smidge more so I could play the bassoon like my father. My first ensemble was a duet with my father. He had put down his clarinet since probably junior high, but dug it out of my grandmother’s closet to play when I started playing in 5th grade. And when I picked up the bassoon, he dusted his off from where it had lain, dormant under the piano, since I was born.

Though the years I’ve had many “clarinet buddies,” playing duets with me, or starting impromptu ensembles. We helped each other improve, and I may have actually done more practicing when playing with a friend. As I moved into high school, I found clarinet buddies in marching band or other low woodwind players in orchestra to be my bassoon buddies (I was always the lone bassoonist). In college, I never quite found any bassoon or clarinet buddies. I couldn’t figure out how to socialize during the breaks at orchestra rehearsal. I was just a shy freshman, the 3rd bassoonist in a section meant for 2. It didn’t seem like much of a loss when I quit orchestra, and, subsequently, bassoon lessons. I hadn’t been motivated to improve in a long time. Away at college, I missed the camaraderie of having music buddies. I didn’t have the motivation to play, or any of the benefits that had always come with music for me.

As Mr. Apron and discussed music last night, I started tearing up. I guess he thought I was again regretting that I have put down my instruments and am afraid to try again. It was all this talk about clarinet buddies. I was realizing that neither Hannah, nor Nadia, nor Jamie, nor Alison, nor Sandy were my first clarinet buddy. My father, who himself had put down his instruments when I was born, was my first clarinet buddy. Though we had built a pink dollhouse together for my 3rd birthday, and gone skiing together when I was 6, the most consistent and longest lasting activity we have shared is music. Music did not care if there was 24” of powder on the ski slope. Music did not care if we had wrist-guards while rollerblading. Music did not leave sawdust in our eyes or require Mickey Mouse ear protectors. Music is something my father supported me in for many years. I understand his fear of my losing my music because of my surgery. He hadn’t realized then that my deficits would not be in the region of the brain that is sensitive to rhythm, melody and harmony, but in my fingers and my discouragement.

We will go to that early music concert in November, and I know I’ll get sad. I’ll also enjoy seeing and hearing the beautiful instruments that I used to hold and play. I’m not sure where I’ll go with music, or if I’ll even persist with an instrument long enough to find out if it’s even possible to play again. I’m still fortunate to have grown up playing and listening to the tunes of my family, in the house where we referred to the living room as “the music room.” The music room was where I danced at age 4 to my mother’s harp practicing, where I set up a crude drum set for my brother made out of oatmeal drums and pie tins, and where my father and I played many hours of duets together.

More than physical impairments, and all the excuses I let my body and brain make for my failure to try again, is motivation. Maybe again I’ll find motivation in one of these concerts – an open call for a mediocre bassoonist, an invitation to come try out the bass recorder, a song I can’t let go of – or in another source. Maybe Mr. Apron will find a duet for banjo and something-I-used-to-play. Maybe I’ll meet someone who inspires me and wants to have jam sessions.

Or maybe we’ll have to grow me another clarinet buddy.

September 18, 2009 in Brain Surgery Tags: AVM, Brain Surgery, music, music cortex, phrenology, Piffaro, the father

Improve your vocabulary with music!

In 1982, researchers from the University of North Texas performed a three-way test on postgraduate students to see if music could help in memorizing vocabulary words. The students were divided into three groups. Each group was given three tests - a pretest, a posttest, and a test a week after the first two tests. All of the tests were identical. Group 1 was read the words with Handel's Water Music in the background. They were also asked to imagine the words. Group 2 was read the same words also with Handel's Water Music in the background. Group 2 was not asked to imagine the words. Group 3 was only read the words, was not given any background music, and was also not asked to imagine the words. The results from the first two tests showed that groups 1 and 2 had much better scores than group 3. The results from the third test, a week later, showed that group 1 performed much better than groups 2 or 3. However, simply using music while learning does not absolutely guarantee recall but can possibly improve it. Background music in itself is not a part of the learning process, but it does enter into memory along with the information learned. Recall is better when the same music used for learning is used during recall. Also, tempo appears to be a key of music's effect on memory.

The Magic of Music with Parkinson's patients

This is one of the most amazing and impressive videos that I've seen in a long time! It demonstrates beautifully the power of music with Parkinson's patients.

Now I am offering to people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease my specially programmed, wireless headphones, programmed with the specific type of music that Parkinson's patients need! If you are interested, contact me immediately at chantdoc@healingmusicenterprises.com. More information will be coming soon! This is going to be big! Help yourself and your loved ones with Parkinsons NOW!

Music Releases Endorphins in Brain

Everyone knows that music makes them feel better, but apparently, music immediately after surgery is even more powerful than previously known. today I came across this article: By Denise DadorLOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A local hospital takes the healing properties of music right to the patients.
She's in the hospital, but Carol Starks feels she's being transported to another place.
"A little music goes a long way and it soothes the soul," said Starks.
Bariatric surgeon and musician, Dr. Peter Crookes, heals for a living but says modern medicine can only bring people so far. The rest depends on the patient and he believes music helps.
"It may cause the release of endorphins and that is one of the postulate mechanisms. Anything that will open the patient's mind to other dimensions of life helps them to cope with it," said Dr. Crookes.
Musician Jane Kim founded the USC volunteer program. She saw music's medical effects firsthand when her father was a patient.
"At the time that he was in the hospital he found it very beneficial listening to music. And seeing the positive effects it had on him I wanted to share that with others," said Kim.
Once a month, some patients get treated to an impromptu concert.
"It was just great. It just made me feel very good and it made me feel very special," said patient Ceci Montalvo.
We all enjoy hearing music, but if it's just in the background and you're just passively listening, experts say it's not going to work on your body and mind. To truly experience music you have to actively listen to it.
"If you attend to music it channels the brain and trains certain actions in the brain which I think are beneficial," said Dr. Crookes.
Studies show music can help people recovering from pain and reduce the need for post-op medications.
Another study reveals music can reduce the anxiety of patients just before surgery. Patients say music's ability to alter their mood can be quite beneficial.
"It makes happiness. It doesn't matter how sad you are or how hurt you are, music can bring it out," said Starks.
If you are interested in being a volunteer for the Music Heals program send an e-mail to musichealsgroup@gmail.com.

Click here for more headlines from ABC7 Eyewitness News

(Copyright ©2009 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Music, the Brain, and Academic Performance

June 21, 2009

Music affects many areas of brain function
by Marjorie H. Weil
Recently the Albion School District announced that, beginning this fall, all fifth- through 12th-graders would be required to take band or choir. Why? Because statistics show that students who do so perform better academically, have higher SAT scores, are more self-confident and are better adjusted socially.
This is not news. Many studies over the years have confirmed these findings. Unfortunately, most of these past studies have been anecdotal in nature or are the result of extensive surveys, and there was little that could address the cause-effect relationship - or why and how music affects the learning process.
But that is beginning to change. And Albion may be on to more than they realize. Researchers in neuroscience, utilizing recent advances in MRI technology, are actually studying the human brain in the act of creating, or listening to, music. And what they are finding is remarkable.
One of the leaders in this field is Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, author of "This Is Your Brain On Music." Published in 2006, the book remained on the New York Times best-seller list for over a year and has been translated into 11 languages. I felt fortunate to hear Dr. Levitin speak last fall at the 75th anniversary celebration of Western Michigan University's School of Music Therapy. His work and that of other neuroscientists in "brain-mapping" is challenging several previously held beliefs.
Where it was once thought, for example, that a particular region of the brain was dedicated to music, it has now been shown that music actually affects many areas of brain function. Combined with the fact that music is a basic part of every human culture around the globe has led Levitin to conclude that the human brain is actually "hard-wired" for music, and music may be even more fundamental to our species than language.
Understanding the strong connection between the auditory and motor regions of the brain has made it possible for people with motor disorders such as Parkinson's disease to improve their ability to walk while listening to a rhythm track, and stroke patients have been able to improve their speech through music therapy.
Perhaps the most exciting news, however, is that there is new evidence that music can actually change the physical structure of the brain - a fact that has critical implications for both education and medicine. Music may even be a major key to unlocking the mystery of how the brain actually learns.

The brain, anesthesia and near death experiences

All Things Considered, May 22, 2009 · We've all heard the stories about near-death experiences: the tunnel, the white light, the encounter with long-dead relatives now looking very much alive.
Scientists have cast a skeptical eye on these accounts. They say that these feelings and visions are simply the result of a brain shutting down.
But now some researchers are giving a closer neurological look at near-death experiences and asking: Can your mind operate when your brain has stopped?
'I Popped Up Out The Top Of My Head'
I met Pam Reynolds in her tour bus. She's a big deal in the music world — her company, Southern Tracks, has recorded music by everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Pearl Jam to REM. But you've probably never heard her favorite song. It's the one Reynolds wrote about the time she traveled to death's door and back. The experience has made her something of a rock star in the near-death world. Believers say she is proof positive that the mind can operate when the brain is stilled. Nonbelievers say she's nothing of the sort.
Reynolds' journey began one hot August day in 1991.
"I was in Virginia Beach, Va., with my husband," she recalls. "We were promoting a new record. And I inexplicably forgot how to talk. I've got a big mouth. I never forget how to talk."
An MRI revealed an aneurysm on her brain stem. It was already leaking, a ticking time bomb. Her doctor in Atlanta said her best hope was a young brain surgeon at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona named Robert Spetzler.
"The aneurysm was very large, which meant the risk of rupture was also very large," Spetzler says. "And it was in a location where the only way to really give her the very best odds of fixing it required what we call 'cardiac standstill.' "
It was a daring operation: Chilling her body, draining the blood out of her head like oil from a car engine, snipping the aneurysm and then bringing her back from the edge of death.
"She is as deeply comatose as you can be and still be alive," Spetzler observes.
When the operation began, the surgeons taped shut Reynolds' eyes and put molded speakers in her ears. The ear speakers, which made clicking sounds as loud as a jet plane taking off, allowed the surgeons to measure her brain stem activity and let them know when they could drain her blood.
"I was lying there on the gurney minding my own business, seriously unconscious, when I started to hear a noise," Reynolds recalls. "It was a natural D, and as the sound continued — I don't know how to explain this, other than to go ahead and say it — I popped up out the top of my head."
A Tunnel And Bright Light
She says she found herself looking down at the operating table. She says she could see 20 people around the table and hear what sounded like a dentist's drill. She looked at the instrument in the surgeon's hand.
"It was an odd-looking thing," she says. "It looked like the handle on my electric toothbrush."
Reynolds observed the Midas Rex bone saw the surgeons used to cut open her head, the drill bits, and the case, which looked like the one where her father kept his socket wrenches. Then she noticed a surgeon at her left groin.
"I heard a female voice say, 'Her arteries are too small.' And Dr. Spetzler — I think it was him — said, 'Use the other side,' " Reynolds says.
Soon after, the surgeons began to lower her body temperature to 60 degrees. It was about that time that Reynolds believes she noticed a tunnel and bright light. She eventually flat-lined completely, and the surgeons drained the blood out of her head.
During her near-death experience, she says she chatted with her dead grandmother and uncle, who escorted her back to the operating room. She says as they looked down on her body, she could hear the Eagles' song "Hotel California" playing in the operating room as the doctors restarted her heart. She says her body looked like a train wreck, and she said she didn't want to return.
"My uncle pushed me," she says, laughing. "And when I hit the body, the line in the song was, 'You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.' And I opened my eyes and I said, 'You know, that is really insensitive!' "
A Vision That Matches The Record
Afterwards, Reynolds assumed she had been hallucinating. But a year later, she mentioned the details to her neurosurgeon. Spetzler says her account matched his memory.
"From a scientific perspective," he says, "I have absolutely no explanation about how it could have happened."
Spetzler did not check out all the details, but Michael Sabom did. Sabom is a cardiologist in Atlanta who was researching near-death experiences.
"With Pam's permission, they sent me her records from the surgery," he says. "And long story short, what she said happened to her is actually what Spetzler did with her out in Arizona."
According to the records, there were 20 doctors in the room. There was a conversation about the veins in her left leg. She was defibrillated. They were playing "Hotel California." How about that bone saw? Sabom got a photo from the manufacturer — and it does look like an electric toothbrush.
How, Sabom wonders, could she know these things?
"She could not have heard [it], because of what they did to her ears," he says. "In addition, both of her eyes were taped shut, so she couldn't open her eyes and see what was going on. So her physical sensory perception was off the table."
An Alternative Explanation?
That's preposterous, says anesthesiologist Gerald Woerlee.
"This report provides absolutely no evidence for survival of any sort of consciousness outside the body during near-death experiences or any other such experiences," he says.
Woerlee, an Australian researcher and near-death experience debunker who has investigated Reynolds' case, says what happened to her is easy to explain. He says when they cut into her head, she was jolted into consciousness. At that point, they had not yet drained blood from her brain. He believes she could hear — despite the clicking earplugs.
"There are various explanations," Woerlee says. "One: that the earphones or plugs were not that tightly fitting. Two: It could have been that it was due to sound transmission through the operating table itself."
So Reynolds could have heard conversations. As for seeing the Midas Rex bone saw, he says, she recognized a sound from her childhood.
"She made a picture in her mind of a machine or a device which was very similar to what she was familiar with — a dental drill," Woerlee says.
Woerlee says Reynolds experienced anesthesia awareness, in which a person is conscious but can't move. He figures back in 1991, that happened in 1 out of every 2,000 operations.
That doesn't convince cardiologist Sabom or neurosurgeon Spetzler. They believe the combination of anesthesia and the sluggish brain activity caused by hypothermia meant that Reynolds could not form or retain memories for a significant part of the operation. At the very least, Sabom says, Reynolds' story raises the possibility that consciousness can function even when the brain is offline.
"Is there some type of awareness that occurs from a nonfunctional, physical brain?" Sabom asks. "And if there is, does that mean that there's a soul or spirit?"

Can Music Create World Peace?

I think that this questions has probably been asked many times but it bears asking again. When people from different cultures choose to perform each others music, it is a way of honoring that other culture. In my lifetime I've probably heard more Western European classical music that any other type, but there are millions of other types and genres of music that could bring comfort and peace to many people. Listen to this beautiful performance of some of the music from "Schindler's List" (written by American John Williams) sung and played by a Chinese group of musicians! Listening to it again brought tears to my eyes, thinking of the atrocities visited on the Jewish people in the 30's and 40's. The more people don't forget this, this less likely it will ever be perpetrated again on anyone! Sing for Peace!

"Musical Training Shapes Brain Development" reports medical study

Commentary from Lutz Jäncke (Thanks to Dr. Ellen Taliaferro for sharing this study with me)

This study supports my own interpretation of the brain's capability for experience-dependent influences 

on brain anatomy and function. In concrete, this study demonstrates that 6-year-old children receiving 

instrumental musical training for 15 months not only learned to play their musical instrument but also 

showed changed anatomical features in brain areas known to be involved in the control of playing a 

musical instrument. This is the first longitudinal study demonstrating brain plasticity in children in the 

context of learning to play a musical instrument. 

One of the major questions in cognitive neuroscience is whether the human brain can be shaped by experience. 

In order to examine use-dependent plasticity of the human brain, mostly cross-sectional studies are undertaken 

comparing subjects with specific skills with appropriate control groups. A classical approach is to compare highly 

skilled musicians, sportsmen, or subjects with other exceptional skills (e.g. synesthesia) with control subjects 

using neuroanatomical and neurophysiological measures (please see refs [1] and [2], on which I am an author, 

and refs [3,4]). Using this approach, several anatomical differences have been identified which can be attributed 

to the specific training influences these particular subjects have experienced. However, although these cross- 

sectional studies have uncovered several important findings, cross-sectional approaches are not valid enough to 

attribute the discovered between-group differences entirely to different learning influences. The only experimental 

approach which is suitable to more validly identify experience-dependent influences in humans is the 

longitudinal experimental approach. Using this approach, the authors of this paper have examined 31 children 

(with a mean age of 6 years) during the course of a 15-month period. Fifteen of these kids received musical 

instrument training (a weekly half-hour training outside the school system) while the 16 remaining kids did not 

attend these classes. However, all kids received the regular music lessons in their school, including playing with 

drums and bells. Thus, the 15 kids receiving keyboard lessons only differed in this particular feature. It turned 

out that these kids showed increased brain volumes in several brain areas after 15 months. Most of these brain 

areas are part of the cortical motor system. There were also structural changes in the auditory system. Taken 

together, this study is the first longitudinal study in children demonstrating structural changes in children 

receiving instrumental musical training. Thus, this study sheds new light on the plasticity of the human brain. 

Faculty of 1000 Medicine: Evaluations, Dissents and Author responses for: [Hyde KL et al. Musical training 

shapes structural brain development. J Neurosci 2009 Mar 11 29 (10) :3019-25] 2009 Apr 1. 

www.f1000medicine.com/article/id/1157746/evaluationRELATED ARTICLES 

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Your Brain on Bach

Thanks to my friend Glenda Neely, a Vanderbilt alum for sending me this excellent article:

Musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and use both the left and right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.  

Previous studies of creativity have focused on divergent thinking—the ability to come up with new solutions to open-ended, multifaceted problems. Highly creative individuals often display more divergent thinking than their less creative counterparts.

Vanderbilt researchers Crystal Gibson, Bradley Folley and Sohee Park recruited 20 classical music students from the Vanderbilt Blair School of Music and 20 non-musicians from a Vanderbilt introductory psychology course.

“We were interested in how individuals who are naturally creative look at problems that are best solved by thinking ‘out of the box,’” says Folley, MA’02, PhD’06, a postdoctoral fellow. “We studied musicians because creative thinking is part of their daily experience, and we found that there were qualitative differences in the types of answers they gave to problems and in their associated brain activity.”

The two groups were matched based on age, gender, education, sex, high school grades and SAT scores. The musicians each had at least eight years of training and played a variety of instruments, including piano, woodwind, string and percussion. Overall, researchers found that the musicians had higher IQ scores than the non-musicians, supporting recent studies that intensive musical training is associated with an elevated IQ score.

Research subjects were shown a variety of household objects and asked to make up new functions for them, and were also given a written word association test. Musicians provided more correct responses than non-musicians on the word association test—something the researchers believe may be attributed to enhanced verbal ability among musicians. Musicians also suggested more novel uses for the household objects than their non-musical counterparts.

In a second experiment the two groups again were asked to identify new uses for everyday objects, but this time they also were asked to perform a basic control task while activity in their prefrontal lobes was monitored using a brain-scanning technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, or NIRS.

“When we measured subjects’ prefrontal cortical activity while completing the alternate-uses task, we found that trained musicians had greater activity in both sides of their frontal lobes,” Folley says. “Because we equated musicians and non-musicians in terms of their performance, this finding was not simply due to the fact that the musicians invented more uses; there seems to be a qualitative difference in how they think about this information.”

One possible explanation for the musicians’ elevated use of both brain hemispheres is that many musicians must be able to use both hands independently to play their instruments.

“Musicians may be particularly good at efficiently accessing and integrating competing information from both hemispheres,” Folley says. “Instrumental musicians often integrate different melodic lines with both hands into a single musical piece, and they have to be very good at simultaneously reading the musical symbols, which are like left-hemisphere-based language, and integrating the written music with their own interpretation, which has been linked to the right hemisphere.”

Folley and Park are investigators in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. Park is a professor of psychology and psychiatry and a member of the Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience. Gibson, BA’04, was an undergraduate student and research assistant in the psychology department at the time of the study. Their research, which was partially supported by a Vanderbilt University Discovery Grant, will appear in the journal Brain and Cognition.

Music and the Brain...in Paris!

Well, I'm always looking for connections between my life, my brain, and the music I love. My brain has really been enjoying Paris and all the sights, smells, tastes and sounds! There are certain senses that are activated in a certain way, only in Paris. These have come back to me powerfully on this trip to Paris which is my first extended visit since 1987. Before that, it was 1974! Anyway, take a look at these photos and you'll see what my 5 senses have been processing over the past 11 days! Enjoy!

There are so many times when music can greatly assist in brain-related injuries and disorders. I've written in this space about music with strokes, dementia and Parkinson's disease. But when one has a sports-related injury to the head that could have been prevented or greatly minimized by wearing a helmet, it's doubly tragic. Why Natasha Richardson did not wear a helmet is unknown, but the reasons most people give are:
It's too heavy
It obstructs my vision
It ruins my hair
I'm just going on a short run
etc., etc.

Here's the story, as quoted in the New York Post:

Actress Natasha Richardson is brain dead - after falling in a ski accident in Canada - and is now on sad journey home to New York, friends told The Post today.
Richardson, who was being treated at a Montreal hospital, is being transported to New York this afternoon so her mom Vanessa Redgrave, two children and other loved ones can say goodbye before she's taken off life-support, friends said.

If you ski, ride a bike, skateboard, snowboard or do any sport where helmets are recommended, please put on a helmet! Thank you!

How does music enter the brain?

You may have heard that music enters the brain through the 8th cranial nerve. I believe that, though, that music also enters the whole body, as well as the brain through every pore of the body. Dr. Alfred Tomatis, with whom I studied in 1991, stated that rather than the ear being differentiated skin, actually the skin of the entire body is also like an ear, receiving sonic vibrations and relaying them to the brain. Makes sense to me. Therefore when I started hearing and reading about the value of music during surgery I thought "it would be so beneficial if the ideal music for surgery could come directly into the brain through headphones...through the 8th cranial nerve." Different people have promoted ambient music in the operating room, but the fact is, the patient needs the opposite music from the surgeon! The surgeon needs upbeat, active music to focus his energy. The patient needs slow, steady, soothing music.

For that reason, I now have patented and begun to sell my wireless, pre-programmed headphones for surgery. You can also simply buy the music in download format and put it on your own iPod! For the headphones, go HERE.

For the download go HERE. Any questions, email me through my website http://www.healingmusicenterprises.com/. Thank you!

Improving Test Scores with Music

One simple way students can improve test scores is by listening to certain types of music such as Mozart's Sonata for Two Piano's in D Major before taking a test. This type of music releases neurons in the brain which help the body to relax. The effectiveness of Mozart's sonatas can be seen by the results from an IQ test performed on three groups of college students. The first group listened to a Mozart sonata before taking the test. The second group listened to a relaxation tape before their test. The third group did not listen to anything before the test. The first group had the highest score with an average of 119. The second group ended up with an average of 111, and the third group had the lowest score with an average of 110.
William Balach, Kelly Bowman, and Lauri Mohler, all from Pennsylvania State University, studied the effects of music genre and tempo on memory retention. They had four groups learn vocabulary words using one of four instrumental pieces - slow classical, slow jazz, fast classical, and fast jazz. Each of the four groups was divided into smaller groups for the recall test. These sub groups used either the same (i.e. slow classical, slow classical) or different (i.e. slow jazz, fast classical) pieces when taking the recall test. The results did show a dependency on the music. Recall was better when the music was the same during learning and testing. These same researchers did another test which restricted the changes in the music to just tempo (i.e. slow to fast jazz) or just genre (i.e. slow jazz to slow classical). Surprisingly, the results showed that changing the genre had no effect on recall but changing the tempo decreased recall.
for more info, see http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html

Music and Brain Tumors: a story in the news

Brain cancer survivors find inspiration in CD's healing message Joe Nagy of Derry was losing hope for recovery from a brain tumor when he encountered the healing message of David Bailey’s music. He drew on that strength while facing his second brain surgery, Nagy said Tuesday at Integrative Medical Advisory Council’s announcement of a new music therapy initiative involving Bailey’s music.“We’ve already seen, firsthand, the power that this music bring to those with brain cancer,” council co-founder Barry Ritko said Tuesday during the announcement at Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown.A good friend of Ritko and his wife, Mary Ann, was given one of Bailey’s compact discs after he was no longer able to talk or watch television due to his brain cancer.“It hasn’t affected his ability to find inspiration in lyrics that speak of hope, faith and strength,” Barry Ritko said. The Integrative Medical Advisory Council promotes alternative and complementary therapies to help seriously ill patients survive longer and live better, Ritko said. The council has selected brain cancer as its focus for the year and launched events with Tuesday’s program.Council leaders and Dr. Alfred Bowles, Memorial’s chairman of neuroscience, presented copies of Bailey’s latest CD, “Hope – An Anthology,” to members of the hospital’s brain tumor support group. The council has purchased 100 copies of the CD for area brain tumor patients. With support from Conemaugh Health Foundation, the council also provides children’s yoga classes inDale and massage therapy for seriously ill patients with Conemaugh Region- al Hospice and in Memorial’s pallia-tive care unit.The organization maintains an online directory of specialists in complementary and alternative therapies at www.imacjohnstown.org.Nagy recalled contacting Bailey through an Internet forum for brain cancer survivors. The folk singer is a 12-year survivor and has recorded several CDs of inspirational music.“The first surgery was not a lot of fun,” Nagy said. “The tumor was recurring during the radiation treatment.”Nagy asked Bailey if he should have another craniotomy to remove the new tumor.“He said, ‘You have to, because I should be dead right now, but I’m not. There is nothing working as well as this is’,” Nagy said. “I discovered he’s right.”Nagy is now an 11-year survivor, and like Bailey, he spreads the message: Don’t give up.
By RANDY GRIFFITH The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, PA, US)

The Musical Brain

This is a wonderful article, written by my mentor, Dr. Arthur Harvey. I know you'll like it!

by Dr. Arthur Harvey
From recent brain research on learning styles, it has been esti­mated that 80-90% of what is experienced and learned is non­verbal, with what sometimes is described as a "right-brain" mode of processing.
We know that for most children and many adults, music is a "right-brain" dominant activity. Based upon that, music may be a powerful and perhaps dominant means of facilitating positive and expressive feelings that can be experienced individu­ally and in groups to take them outside themselves.
In other words, music provides a symbolic means of objectifying feelings and emotions, which then can be dealt with. Music-making can be an emotionally cathartic experience, as feelings which are often "bottled-up", sometimes due to lack of words to identify and describe them, are released through music. After music-making, we often hear musicians, young and old, com­menting that they feel better, energized, and renewed.
UP: Music has the wonderful ability to lift UP spirits. Parades, pep rallies, school socials, church services, concerts, radio and television, and recordings are examples of situations and pro­cesses through which most of us have experience our moods, emotions, and feelings being lifted. There are both psychological and physiological explanations for why and how music can and should be used for this purpose during a stressful time.
As music stimulates creative and imaginative thinking linked with positive emotional feelings, individuals experience a transformation or transition of being lifted UP from mundane concerns. When these are the result of music experiences that produce what psychologist Abraham Maslow termed "peak experiences", there is a temporary sense of being lifted UP beyond the limitations of normal time-space constraints, often resulting in a sense of non-linear time and feeling of being "one with the music".
Maslow describes these experi­ences as necessary steps toward what he called the "self-actualiza­tion" process, and suggested in a symposium at Tanglewood that music may be the most effective means of lifting individuals UP toward emotionally healthy growth. Psychiatrist John Diamond, a pioneer in behavioral kinesiology, has focused his career and publica­tions on exploring the power of music to give us "life energy". In his books, Your Body Doesn't Lie and Life Energy in Music, he shares how music can increase our strength and lift us UP mentally and emotionally.
In recent years a significant amount of research has been done exploring the connection between music and how it affects the human brain. With the discov­ery of the neuropeptide endor­phins, it was found that music can stimulate its production, reducing pain reception as well as lifting UP spirits.
Throughout the history of mankind, music has been known as a media­tor between the physical world and the spiritual world, and has been an integral part of all cultures and most religions. Music can alter our consciousness, helping us to transcend our sensory-limited, inwardly-focused experiences, and expand beyond our experience­ based reality. Mystic, meditative and spiritual experiences are often initiated through music, as well as heightened by music.
Albert Schweitzer wrote, "All true and deeply felt music, whether sacred or profane, journeys to heights where arts and religion can always meet".
In recognizing the power of music to enhance our lives, Charles Darwin wrote, "If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature".
Music can have a positive influence on many aspects of our lives. In a recent release from the American Music Conference, the following 10 Fast Facts were included concerning the impact music can have on learning, health, and wellness.
(1) Music has an obvious impact on the brain and should be supported and encouraged, especially in early childhood education and through­out all stages and ages of learning.
(2) Playing an instrument strength­ens eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills, as well as concentra­tion, memory, and attitude.
(3) Research shows that music training improves spatial-temporal reasoning in preschool children. which is necessary for learning math and science, as well as other subjects.
(4) A recent study showed that a curriculum combining piano lessons, educational math software, and fun math problems, helped second graders achieve scores on advanced math concepts and Stanford 9 math scores comparable to those of fourth graders.
(5) Students who make music have been shown to get along better with classmates and have fewer disci­pline problems.
(6) Young people who are involved in making music in their teenage years score 100 points higher on the SAT's than those who don't play music.
(7) Senior citizens who are actively involved in music-making enjoy significant health benefits. For example, studies show that music activates the cerebellum and therefore may aid stroke victims in regaining language capabilities.
(8) Many of the challenges that plague older Americans appear to respond positively to active music­ making. For example, scientific studies show improvements in the brain chemistry of people suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.
(9) Studies show that older Ameri­cans who are actively involved in music-making show improvements in anxiety, loneliness, and depres­sion-three factors that are critical in coping with stress, stimulating the immune system, and improving health.
(10) A breakthrough study demon­strated that group keyboard lessons given to older Americans had a significant effect on increasing levels of human growth hormone (HGH), which is implicated in such aging phenomena as osteoporosis, energy levels, wrinkling, sexual function, muscle mass, and aches and pains.

Music, Power, and the Brain

A man named Laurence O'Donnell has written a fascinating paper. and subsuquently a website called "Music Power." I highly recommend that you check out both. He writes a lot about music and the brain. One thing he says is "Responses to music are easy to be detected in the human body. Classical music from the baroque period causes the heart beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore, baroque music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn. Music affects the amplitude and frequency of brain waves, which can be measured by an electro-encephalogram. Music also affects breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate. " Check it out! It's full of information that I think you'll enjoy!

Music and Epilepsy

Using the sound of her violin, concert violinist Martha Curtis teaches hope, and the power to overcome anything. Curtis has suffered from epilepsy her entire life, even having seizures on the biggest concert stages in the world.
15 years ago, Curtis put her career and love for music on the line, undergoing three major brain surgeries removing the part of the brain causing her seizures. Curtis was the first professional musician to undergo the procedure that has reportedly caused blindness, and losing the ability to hear music. A day after her third surgery, Curtis again played the violin, playing an excerpt from beethoven. The surgery was a success. Curtis has not suffered a seizure ever since, and now travels around the world talking to people from all walks of life, teaching them never to give up.
Martha Curtis' story has been featured on CBS's 60 minutes, and she is currently writing a book. Curtis credits music for saving her life, allowing beauty into her heart, not just an illness.

The Brain and Strokes: Pay Close Attention

This is really pretty hard to believe, but it is true. This woman had studied the brain and then she, herself, had a stroke. What she discovered during that process is something we would do well to learn more about. Pay attention!

Pay Attention to Music for Political Ads!

I don't know about you, but I am getting so weary of all the political ads we're being inundated with these days. The mud-slinging is getting really bad but there is one ad that I really actually like because of the music played in the background. This is the ad for an Indiana politician...Mitch Daniels. Now I honestly don't know what party he belongs to or what he believes in or has promised us. I do know that his music is ideal for a political ad~
This music is a slow but triumphant sounding march that, to me, seems hopeful, powerful, confident, and...well, like a winner would have! Can music influence the way you vote? Of course it depends on lots of thing, but for people like me, music is important and I think this little snippet of march music is wonderful. Everytime I hear it playing, I walk into the room and watch the ad!
Music is powerful! Listen to this www.mymanmitch.com.

More research on music and the brain

Immunity, too, can benefit. South African researchers have successfully used Bach's Magnificat to benefit mood, boost the immune system and lower stress hormones in people undergoing physiotherapy for infectious lung disease.

Regularly listening can also lower high blood pressure. Patients who listened to 25 minute of music a day for four weeks lowered their blood pressure, while a control group who were played no music saw no change in their condition. After four weeks, the average drop for the music group in systolic blood pressure was 11.8 mmHg and for diastolic, 4.7 mmHg. There were no significant changes in the control group. "Music therapy may be an alternative for hypertension treatment," say the researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Some research suggests that not all music is effective. Tune and tempo have been found to be more important than melody, rhythm, harmony or timbre. Quick, pulsating rhythms and vigorous music have been shown to have a counter effect, triggering negative emotions.

So how exactly does the body derive health benefits from music? At one level, it may work simply as a distraction, taking the mind off the pain. When healthy people are exposed to experimental pain, as they were in research at Glasgow Caledonian University, they had greater tolerance to it when they were listening to their favourite music.

But distraction is not the only way in which symptoms are eased. One Finnish stroke-recovery study found that music is processed and handled in different parts of the brain, and one suggestion is that by holding the patient's attention, it stimulates nerve cells which go on to bypass the region damaged by the stroke.

One theory is that it works through the emotion circuitry of the brain, which has an effect on the production of key hormones, which in turn impact on body functions, from the repair of nerves to pain relief.

Can Some Music Harm the Brain?

One of my mentors, Dr. Joel Elkes, once said that just as music has the power to heal, it also has the power to harm. Last week I was in Miami, South Beach to be exact. Nearly every store and restaurant I walked past had electronic-sounding disco music blaring onto the street. Every coffee shop, every sidewalk cafe, every hotel poolside, everywhere! It was maddening for me because it was so horribly repetitive and tune-less. It was as though all of South Beach is in some kind of techno-trance and they seem to be oblivious of it! I found it actually painful and it kept me from enjoying the beauty of the palms, flowers, shrubs and Art Deco architecture. Wake up South Beach! This is not a good way to promote your beautiful little city!

What makes a piano prodigy?

Have you ever wondered why some children are born with magnificent musical talents and some with devastating physical, mental and emotional handicaps? Much has been written about the latter but not nearly as much about the former. We know that musical talent tends to run in families. The study of genetics has come a long, long way in the past several decades, but some gifts are so staggering that it is hard to imagine these children exist. Mozart was one such wunderkind.
If you haven't seen the movie "Vitus," you must go immediately and rent it. This little boy is a true musical geius and piano prodigy. Enjoy!

Watch Dr. Oliver Sacks discuss music and Parkinson's

This is wonderful video of Dr. Oliver Sacks talking about the power of music with Parkinson's. Hear him say "you don't even need a music therapist if you have a little iPod!" Wow! That is so empowering for all the people who love music and want to use it for healing purposes. Just remember, healing and "curing" are not synonymous! BTW, if you have not signed up for my ezine and blog, please go to www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com and www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com/blog.

Musical Memories of my Father on Father's Day

This year I wanted to do a special Father's Day Issue in memory of my own father, the Rev. Dr. Michael Benjamin Hudnall. Daddy was a United Methodist minister in the S.C. Conference of the United Methodist Church. I was born in Durham, N.C. while he was in seminary at Duke University on the G.I. Bill after World War II.

Some of my earliest musical memories took place, not surprisingly in church and as a tiny girl I loved singing songs in Sunday School and hymns in church. My father always sang hymns lustily and made me want to do so as well. He always seemed so happy up there at the pulpit singing hymns and listening to the choir and would always turn around approvingly when they finished their anthems.
As a little girl, Daddy would come into my sister's and my bedroom and teach us songs he learned as a child and some that he learned in the Army. We loved singing these songs and I especially remember singing "My Grandfather's Clock," "Oh My Pa-pa," "Do Your Ears Hang Low," and "A Capital Ship." If you'd like to see a performance of "My Grandfather's Clock" and "A Capital Ship," you can click below. Even though this isn't my father, sister and me, you can imagine what fun we had singing these songs.








When I started taking piano lessons at age 8, Daddy was always my biggest fan and I remember him telling me at one point that he could just lie on the living room couch, listening to me playing the piano and "float right up to Heaven!" Needless to say, that made me very happy! I always knew that even if my recitals didn't go perfectly, Daddy would be first in line to congratulate me on a beautiful performance.

My father told me that he wished he could have taken piano lessons as a child but that his family didn't have the money during the Great Depression and so he and his family enjoyed singing and making music other ways. Music is a gift from God and I never take it for granted. As I grew up and became a parent and a professional musician I wanted to give my own children the love and appreciation for music that my father gave me. He was also extremely proud of my children's musical ability and encouraged them as he did me. A few years ago, my oldest daughter played her violin in Carnegie Hall and I knew that Daddy was there with us in spirit. He passed away in 1999 and was a very beloved human being. At his funeral, three different ministers gave tributes to him. If you'd like to read what the newspapers said about him, go HERE. I miss my father very much today but I have all of this sermons and a few tapes of him preaching and singing the hymns of Charles Wesley that he loved so much.

Birthday Music and the Brain

Well, tomorrow's my birthday!! And it's one of the big ones. I'll let you guess: One late May afternoon, at Duke University Hospital (Watts Hospital) a baby girl was born to Benjamin and Alice Adelaide ("Tumpy") Hudnall. The year was 1948 and I was their firstborn. My father was just about to get his Master's of Divinity degree so that he could be an ordained Methodist minister. Have you figured out how old I'll be? Now to the musical part. Every year on our birthdays, there's a song we hear, pretty much all over the Western World! Just the sound of that famous song releases endorphins in ths brain and makes people feel excited anticipation about the day and the moment. Often it brings floods of images of the past year and years. Hopefully it brings a sense of deep love and appreciation from family and friends. These things are definitely true for me. Want to help me celebrate my birthday tomorrow (May 22)? I'd like to know what music you associate with your birthday and what your favorite music is this year and this moment. I will compile some lists and get back to you with what music my readers like.
The cake in the picture is a lime-coconut cake that friends of mine made at my home tonight. It's my favorite and will be garnished tomorrow with a lime twist. Thanks for all the cards, letters, balloons and flowers! Love to all!
Alice

Oliver Sacks, renowned neurologist speaks about music's power

Oliver Sacks, professor at Columbia University, studies people with neurological conditions ranging from Tourette's syndrome to autism. In a presentation, he described the unique connection between human cognition and music.
Sacks spoke on his experience working with patients who suffered from sleeping sickness, aphasias and Alzheimer's disease. Music "survives amnesia, dementia and much else," Sacks contended. It plays a part in their therapy and can even help patients with advanced Alzheimer's.
According to Sacks, aphasia patients can partially recover through "music intonation therapy" because the parts of the brain responsible for musical perception reside in close proximity to those responsible for memory.
Sacks quoted an Alzheimer's suffering patient's relative: "Music is one of the only things that keeps him grounded in the world."

Important Research on the Brain and Music

The news has been hard to miss: in study after study, scientists are finding correlations between music making and some of the deepest workings of the human brain.
Research has linked active music making with better language and math ability, improved school grades, better-adjusted social behavior, and improvements in "spatial-temporal reasoning," which is the foundation of engineering and science. Physicists mapping brain activity have even identified patterns that resemble musical notes.
Take a look at some of the exciting findings linked below, and check back often for new developments in this exciting field.

The Royal Institution Presents New Research At First Public Conference on "The Musical Brain"
Biological Connection to Musical Activities Uncovered
Rauscher's Research Points to Link between Intelligence and Music
University of Munster Research: Exposure to Music Is Instrumental to the Brain Piano and Computer Training Boost Student Math Achievement, UC Irvine Study Shows
Study Explains Why Music Can Help Stroke Victims Regain Language Capabilities
Enhanced Learning Of Proportional Math Through Music Training And Spatial-Temporal Training
Keeping Mozart In Mind: Shaw Book Sets the Record Straight on the Mozart Effect
Gordon Shaw's M.I.N.D. Institute Promotes Music-Brain Research

source: Copyright © 2007 American Music Conference

An Excerpt from "Your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin

This is an excerpt from the introduction to the wonderful book "Your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin. I highly recommend it!!

"Many people who love music profess to know nothing about it. I've found that many of my colleagues who study difficult, intricate topics such as neurochemistry or psychopharmacology feel unprepared to deal with research in the neuroscience of music. And who can blame them? Music theorists have an arcane, rarified set of terms and rules that are as obscure as some of the most esoteric domains of mathematics. To the nonmusician, the blobs of ink on a page that we call music notation might just as well be the notations of mathematical set theory. Talk of keys, cadences, modulation, and transposition can be baffling.

Yet every one of my colleagues who feel intimidated by such jargon can tell me the music that he or she likes. My friend Norman White is a world authority on the hippocampus in rats, and how they remember different places they've visited. He is a huge jazz fan, and can talk expertly about his favorite artists. He can instantly tell the difference between Duke Ellington and Count Basie by the sound of the music, and can even tell early from late Louis Armstrong. Norm doesn't have any knowledge about music in the technical sense - he can tell me that he likes a certain song, but he can't tell me what the names of the chords are. He is, however, an expert in knowing what he likes. This is not at all unusual, of course. Many of us have a practical knowledge of things we like, and can communicate our preferences without possessing the technical knowledge of the true expert. I know that I prefer the chocolate cake at one restaurant I often go to over the chocolate cake at my neighborhood coffee shop. But only a chef would be able to analyze the cake - to decompose the taste experience into its elements - by describing the differences in the kind of flour, or the shortening, or the type of chocolate used."

Your Brain on Music

Ever wonder why a particular song can automatically put you in a great mood, while another can move you to tears? Why certain songs get stuck in our heads? And how these reactions are created by the composer?
Some explanations can be found in "This Is Your Brain On Music--The Science Of A Human Obsession." It's by Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. a former record producer, sound engineer, and A&R agent for Columbia Records. He now runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal. Levitin says through studies of music and the brain, we've learned to map out specific areas involved in emotion, timing and perception -- and production of sequences. "They've told us how the brain deals with patterns and how it completes them when there's misinformation," says Levitin."What we're learning about the part in the frontal lobe called BA47 is the most exciting. Music suggests that it's a region that helps us predict what comes next in a sequence."Levitin says we've learned a lot about music perception from people with brain disorders or injuries."We've learned that musical ability is actually not one ability but a set of abilities, a dozen or more. Through brain damage, you can lose one component and not necessarily lose the others. You can lose rhythm and retain pitch, for example, that kind of thing. We see equivalents in the visual domain: People lose color perception or shape perception."Levitin says he thinks of the brain as a computational device. "It has a bunch of little components that perform calculations on some small aspect of the problem, and another part of the brain has to stitch it all together, like a tapestry or a quilt."Levitin has also looked at this from an evolutionary perspective, to answer the question: Why did humans develop music in the first place? "There are a number of different theories. One theory is that music is an evolutionary accident, piggybacking on language: We exploited language to create music just for our own pleasure. A competing view, one that Darwin held, is that music was selected by evolution because it signals certain kinds of intellectual, physical and sexual fitness to a potential mate."So how does that play out in rock 'n' roll?"(Research has shown that) if women could choose who they'd like to be impregnated by, they'd choose a rock star. There's something about the rock star's genes that is signaling creativity, flexibility of thinking, flexibility of mind and body, an ability to express and process emotions -- not to mention that (musical talent) signals that if you can waste your time on something that has no immediate impact on food-gathering and shelter, you've got your food-gathering and shelter taken care of."What are we learning about the link between music and emotion in the brain? "Music activates the same parts of the brain and causes the same neurochemical cocktail as a lot of other pleasurable activities like orgasms or eating chocolate -- or if you're a gambler winning a bet or using drugs if you're a drug user. Serotonin and dopamine are both involved," says Levitin.Could music be an antidepressant? "It is already -- most people in Western society use music to regulate moods, whether it's playing something peppy in the morning or something soothing at the end of a hard day, or something that will motivate them to exercise. Joni Mitchell told me that someone once said before there was Prozac, there was her."

The Brain Experiences Cathedral Bells

This past Sunday, December 23rd, I was visiting my middle daughter in Washington, D.C. and attended the Sunday morning service at one of my favorite churches in the world, the Washington National Cathedral. It was quite a magnificent spiritual experience with glorious Christmas music and an interior and exterior that are nothing short of miraculous. At the end of the service I went up to the 7th floor tower to see the view and heard the pealing bells. It was a powerful experience that went straight to my brain and to my heart!

Keeping Your Brain Young with Music

This past week-end I went to a delightful Christmas Program at my mother's assisted living community in Spartanburg, S.C. It was a double celebration because not only was it a Christmas dinner for all residents and their families but it was also my mother's 82nd birthday! In preparation for this, my mother organized a little chorus of her peers and friends there and they sang familiar carols and Christmas songs. To my amazement, my mother conducted the chorus, even though she is legally blind from macular degeneration!

I have no doubt that those who participate in music-making activites keep their brains active and young and the research in this field backs that belief up! Soooo, keep singing and playing all the music you love! Happy Holidays!

Dr. Alice Cash is offering a very special price to her blog readers on her brand-new Christmas CD. Click here to read all about it and order it NOW!

Christmas CD for YOU!

Want to tickle your brain? You know that music is always good for your brain. Add to that all of the warm, loving memories of your Christmases from childhood, and the result is a big "brainhug." Listening to your favorite childhood music is the very best way to get a "brain hug."

As a result, I've just made a Christmas CD for you and I really hope you'll give one to yourself and all your family. Click below to get all the details!! And Merry Christmas!!

Click here to get Alice's Brand-New Christmas CD

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

You may have heard about the fantastic new book from Dr. Oliver Sacks, "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain." Dr. Sacks has been on national TV shows for the past several weeks and this book promises to be another best-seller for him. I haven't read it yet but I'm getting ready to order it from Amazon. If you want to order it from Amazon, please go to http://www.drcashprefers.com/Music/amazon.htm and then put in the name of Dr. Sacks book.

Dr. Sacks was one of my first heroes when I stepped into the field of music and medicine. He had just testified in Congress about the power of music in many musical specialties. If you do to to my site listed above (http://www.drcashprefers.com/Music/amazon.htm) you'll also see some fascinating videos of him talking about music with several conditions such as amnesia, Parkinson's and "brainworms." Enjoy!

Can Music Help a Brain Injury?

Have you heard of Acquired Brain Injury? (ABI) It's the leading killer and cause of disability in children and young adults. More than two million head injuries occur each year. Statistics show that the highest rate of injury occurs in young men between the ages of 15 and 24. ABI is an impairment of brain functioning that is physically or psychologically verifiable. Frequent causes of ABI are brain lesions caused by traumas such as auto accidents, falls, assaults and violence or sports injuries.

Can music make a difference?

The answer is a resounding yes! Persons with a brain injury can benefit from music as a modality to promote vocalization, rhythmic movements, orientation, relaxation, self-expression, and as a way to enhance overall self- esteem. Because music is processed by the entire brain, the structure of music helps to re-organize the structure of the brain. Listening to highly organized music such as that of Mozart often helps brain injured patients to organize their thoughts, activities and even their emotions.

Alice visits with her "Musical Brain" mentor

Today I had the pleasure of spending some time with my dear music medicine mentor, Dr. Arthur Harvey! I am vacationing in Sarasota and Dr. Harvey has now moved here from Hawaii! We had some scintillating conversation this a.m. about music and surgery and he gave me some great ideas for music to use during surgery. He also filled me in on some important resources that I had not yet mined and will be doing so this evening and beyond.

Dr. Arthur Harvey is one fantastic, awesome, and yet very humble individual and I hope we can have these inspiring visits for years to come! Thanks for helping me to step into this field Arthur!

Lecture at Clemson University Introduces Healing Music Concepts

Last Thursday night, September 13, 2007 will live in my memory for many decades to come. On that night in Clemson, S.C. at Clemson University, I presented the Inaugural William H. Hunter, M.D. Endowed Lecture. This newly endowed lecture will be presented as part of the Calhoun Lecture Series and I believe will always be on a medical topic. I feel so honored to have been asked to deliver this lecture because the subject of Music as Medicine is still, unfortunately, somewhat controversial. Despite the fact the we have documented evidence from throughout history that music has been used for heaing purposes, in our scientific and empirical data age, many people still see music therapy and music healing as "soft science" and something to be quite skeptical about.

This lecture was sponsored by AnMed Health Foundation in Anderson, S.C. and this wonderful group is already fully supportive of the use of music in hospitals and are providing music therapy and music healing. It was so wonderful to see many old friends there and friends of my parents and many, many people purchased books, CD's and tapes. Thank you sooooooooo much to everyone who made this possible!

The Brain, Biking, and Improvisation

Today was Labor Day and I deicided to do the Mayor's Bike and Hike Event down by the Ohio River. It was a beautiful day and riding the 10-12 miles downtown and along the river was just a gorgeous trip.
When I got home, I was ready to sit down at the piano and start working on my new Christas CD music. I was amazed at how easy the arranging of my music was today and I totally attribute it to the endorphins, dopamine and adrenaline that I stirred up by riding my bike up and down the rolling hills and valleys earlier today. What do you think?

Understanding brain waves and tuning your brain

They say that the brain is the last unexplored frontier, but over the last decade or two, much research has been conducted that documents how sound and vibration impact the brain in a very positive way.

The following was found on today's "The Daily Turn-on." Enjoy!

Did you know you can actually charge up your central nervous system through music? Alfred Tomatis, French physician and specialist in otolaryngology (ear, nose, throat specialist) has been studying the functions of the human ear for over forty-five years. Tomatis discovered that with a frequency as high as 8000 hz, such as Gregorian chants, humans are able to "charge" the central nervous system and the cortex of the brain. Through years of research he has found that sound is not actually produced through the mouth but rather through the vibratory frequency that travels through the bones of the body. Every bone, tissue and fiber of our bodies operates through its own unique resonant frequency which combined make up each individual person's unique vibratory signature, or aura. Disease occurs when an individual's own natural vibratory state is out of resonance or is in disharmony. Fortunately, just as the body can get out of harmony, it is possible to put it back in harmony with its natural resonance through sound therapy. Sound therapy involves externally creating sound and projecting it into the diseased area to reintroduce the correct harmonic pattern. So where does this whole chanting thing come into play? We can actually change our body's natural rhythmic vibrations through a process called entrainment which introducws a more powerful rhythmic vibration to a weaker vibration until the more powerful vibration changes the less powerful vibration and their rhythms become synchronized together. And this can be accomplished through chanting. A a matter of fact, our brain waves, heart beat and respiratory patterns can all be shifted through the practice of entrainment. Sound therapy is a healing modality that uses sound to shift our vibratory frequency to bring the body back to a place of harmony. The key to accomplishing this is understanding the basic categories of brain waves:
Beta Waves vibrate at a frequency of 14 to 20 Hz and are the frequency of our normal waking state of mind.
Alpha Waves vibrate at a frequency of 8 to 13 Hz and are typically the frequency of our daydreaming or meditative state of mind.
Theta Waves vibrate at a frequency of 4 to 7 Hz are the frequency of a deep sleeping state, as well as the frequency found in shamanic activity.
Delta Waves vibrate at a frequency of .5 to3 Hz and are the frequency thats occurs in deep sleep, as well as profound levels of meditation and healing. By utilizing our sense of sound, we are literally able to shift our consciousness and create healing in our body. But, be aware that the opposite is true. We can also utilize our sense of sound to negatively shift our consciousness and create disease.

Music-Brain Research going on in Boston

I love to go to Boston because I have family there and they are part of the music world there as well as the medical world. On a recent trip to Boston, I heard about a fascinating stuady and was going on with the conductor of the Boston pops and his audience:

"Mozart and Dr. Seuss provided the inspiration Saturday as researchers measured the emotional responses of a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance. Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, five members of the orchestra, and 50 audience members were the guinea pigs — wired with sensors as researchers stationed at two banks of computers backstage collected data about heart rates, muscle movement, and other physiological responses.
"Science has come an awful long way in the last 250 years," Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart told a Symphony Hall audience of about 2,000 parents and young children during a family concert.
The concert consisted of four Mozart pieces, including the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro— celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth — followed by two Seuss interpretations, including Green Eggs and Ham.
Among researchers' questions: Do orchestra and audience members have strong physiological responses, as they suspect, to the conductor's thrusts and dramatic head tosses? Is there much difference between responses at a live show compared to watching on television, as a control group will do later?
"We want a window into the brain," said research director Daniel J. Levitin, a cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal. "We want to understand more about how the brain works."

More on the brain, bicycling and singing the blues

At the moment, my youngest daughter is in town, visiting me from Santa Fe, where she is getting more and more into bike racing. I'm trying to ride with her a little bit while she's home but as I've mentioned in previous posts, I havn't ridden in almost 25 years and I'm about 40 lbs. heavier! Not only that, but "they've" changed the whole gear shifting mechanism in the last 25 years and twice yesterday I managed to make the chain jump off of the gears because I wasn't shifting right! Drat! I was really singing the blues on that one. In addition, Louisville is hosting the "Senior Games" right now and so as I was limping through the park yesterday, walking my disabled bike, folks in their 60's, 70's, and even 80', were zooming past me on their flashy bikes looking at me like "what's wrong with that lady and her bike?" One very kind couple from St. Louis stopped and drove me and my bike up to the maintenance tent and helped me get my chain put back on. I'm sure today will be better! Maybe if I could compose a song to help me shift properly as I ride through Cherokee Park...what do you think??

Musicians set the tone for healing

The many applications of music for healing: hospice settings, coma, stroke and rehab of all kinds. Enjoy this fabulous story:

Anna Jenkins wears a solemn expression while she gracefully plucks the strings on her harp. The notes fill the room and coat it with an aura of peace.
Next to her, in a hospital bed, a patient is dying.
Jenkins is one of a handful of music therapists who volunteer at St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way.
“I usually am serious because I’m playing for people that are very sick,” Jenkins said.
The notes are dream-like and seem to float from the harp, following no recognizable melody. To play a song a person recognized would hold them in reality, Jenkins said. An unfamiliar song helps people let go.
“They can just listen to that and drift off,” she said. “Music helps people to let go and if they’re actively dying, their hearing is the last thing that stays with them.”
Jenkins doesn’t only play for those who are dying. She also plays to relax those who are critically or chronically ill. She plays for children and the elderly as well as patients just coming out of a difficult surgery. Music helps heal, Jenkins said.
She recalled a story from two years ago. She was playing the harp at a comatose patient’s bedside while the family gathered around singing hymns. The man suddenly awoke from a coma.
It could have coincidentally been his time to wake up, but Jenkins likes to think otherwise.
“I couldn’t help but wonder if the love from all his family there somehow reached him,” she said.
For those who are dying, Jenkins spends a considerable amount of the afternoon playing her harp at their bedside. A story in the Bible mentions angels playing the harp at a person’s death.
“There are rare occasions where it’s a little scary for people,” Jenkins said. “They say ‘Oh no, I’m not ready for that.’”
Although Jenkins insists she is not an angel, she said there is often a spiritual presence in the room when she plays.
“I’ve had people comment that they’ve been touched by the spirit. I don’t want to imply that it’s me, but it’s something that happens in the room at the time,” she said.
Soothing music reduces a patient’s blood pressure, relieves anxiety and affects the heart rate, said Renee Krisko, a chaplain at St. Francis. Krisco assigns Jenkins and other music therapists to patients who would most benefit from the music.
“I believe there are medical healing effects to this,” she said.
Jenkins said she’s watched a person’s heart rate go down on the monitor while she’s playing. She was trained in music therapy as part of the Music for Healing and Transition program.
Although most people will never have the opportunity to hear Jenkins play the harp, all visitors to St. Francis could meet Bonnie Knight-Graves.
Graves volunteers to play the piano in the lobby and in the mental health ward at St. Francis several days each week.
“It’s serving the public, actually,” Graves said of her work. “It’s setting the tone for people coming into the hospital.”
Music is healing because it relieves a patient’s anxiety, Graves said.
“It frees the mind of stress and gives them a more relaxed approach to life so they can heal themselves,” she said. “The body can heal itself if it’s not loaded down with stress.”

Born with a 'music module'?

This is an excerpt from a fascinating interview:


JEFFREY BROWN: Music, of course, comes in many forms and appears to have been part of every age and every known culture. There's a continuing debate among scientists as to music's exact role in human evolution.
But Levitin believes that the brain itself has evolved to make sense of music and that we're each born wired for music, just as we are for language.
DANIEL LEVITIN: If you're born listening to Chinese opera, your brain is going to become wired to the rules of that musical form. If you're born listening to Pakistani music, Indian music, Indian ragas, your brain will become wired to those. Our brain is plastic, and malleable, and able to wire itself up to whatever language we hear, to learn those rules.
Similarly, I would argue that we all are born with a music module. We're born with the wiring to accommodate any music that we hear, and we learn those rules effortlessly just by listening.
JEFFREY BROWN: Levitin says there's an area of the brain, in the prefrontal cortex, specifically dedicated to comparing what we hear with our expectations of learned patterns of music. That's the reason we can be surprised, pained or delighted when those expectations are tampered with, something great musicians know to exploit.
DANIEL LEVITIN: When you listen to Stevie Wonder drumming on "Superstition," for example, he's playing in time, and you're forming predictions about what's going to happen next. The additional nuance that he brings to it is that he changes the beats ever so slightly, throughout the whole song, "Superstition," never the same.
So he's going a little bit different. He varies the pressure on the high-hat cymbal, so it's a little bit louder, a little bit softer. The beauty of it is that the cerebellum is trying to figure out, "OK, where is the next beat going to come? What's it going to be?" And he's surprising the cerebellum at every turn, so that your brain...
JEFFREY BROWN: We don't talk to too many scientists who are doing Stevie Wonder drum solos for us, I've got to tell you that.

Music, the Brain, and Exercise

"It's no secret that exercise improves mood, but new research suggests that working out to music may give exercisers a cognitive boost.Listening to music while exercising helped to increase scores on a verbal fluency test among cardiac rehabilitation patients." Thus says a study from 2004 as cited in Science Daily. "This is the first study to look at the combined effects of music and short-term exercise on mental performance," said Charles Emery, the study's lead author and a professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

Do you listen to music while you exercise? It seems to me that most everyone at the gym has their ipod on or headphones of some kind or another. Now we have another motivation to listen to our favorite music while exercising. What kind of music do you listen to when exercising?

Neurochemicals at work in Carnegie Hall

I've spent the past week in NYC doing two major musical activities. On Tuesday night I heard my youngest sister conduct her orchestra in Carnegie Hall. It was a true peak experience and the positive neurochemicals such as serotonin and dopamine were surely flowing in abundance! My mother and another sister were there and we were just thrilled to see her conduct just likee pros! It was sooo awesome!

On Thursday morning, I spoke at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn. My topic was "The Importance of Music with Pregnancy, Preemies, and Newborns." The presentation was well-received and I thoroughly enjoyed giving it to the doctors and nurses there! We talked about the effect of music on the devleoping infant's brain and how very important it is to have high quality music for a pregnant Mom!

Questions anyone?

Another bike-riding brain-music experience

It appears that Spring has sprung here in Louisville, KY and today I decided to get my new bike out again and go for a ride. I was riding with a friend so I wasn't expecting any problems but after we had been out for 30 minutes or so, we encountered a pretty good little hill. The shifters on this bike are different from my old bike so I was trying to climb this hill in a gear that was way too big. I used my old technique of singing to my "one little two little three little indians" and that again worked amazingly well. It took my mind off the struggle of puhing the pedals down so I could make it up the hill and a few minutes later, I figured out my new shifters!

The Brain Goes to Riverdance

Tonight I'm going to Riverdance and I can't wait! I love Riverdance and I can't exactly tell you why. There is a fascinating theory out there that we respond biologically and neurologically to music that is in our DNA. In other words, if we have a heavy Irish heritage, this beautiful Irish music is literally in our blood and in our genes. My immediate family is actually mostly English but that's pretty close. Of course the faster numbers are extremely rhythmic and have the whirling rhythms that make me want to jump up and join them. Since I am in the last row of the last balcony I will try to restrain myself! I'll let you know later how it goes!

Interesting research

I've reently discovered a great site called www.cognews.com. On this site there was a press release of some very interesting research on how the brain responds to music from other cultures. Let me share this with you, my readers: Subjects brains were observed through an fMRI while listening to music from different cultures. Results showed that brain activation was the same, regardless of cultural bias of the music; although, there were some differences in ability to remember certain kinds of music and brain activation varied based on musical training.
The researchers found similarities in brain activity when the musicians and untrained listeners were exposed to the Western classical and traditional Chinese musical excerpts. All subjects showed significant clusters of activation in the brain regions called the right transverse temporal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus. However, some differences did emerge based on musical training. The musicians exhibited significantly greater activity in the right superior temporal gyrus when listening to both types of music. In addition, the musicians also showed significant brain activity in the right middle frontal gyrus when listening to Western music and in the left middle frontal gyrus when hearing the Chinese music. These findings support the idea that formal training influences patterns of brain activity in response to culturally familiar and unfamiliar music, according to the researchers.By contrast, brain activity was similar among all subjects when comparing English speech to Cantonese. There was significant brain activity in the left insula and lesser activity in the left superior temporal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus that was not present while listening to Cantonese.

The Infant Brain

Did you know that the infant brain can be affected before birth by playing classical music and singing to the unborn child? It's true. The brain is the only organ that can actually be positively affected during pregnancy. The other organs, lungs, stomachs, hearts, ovaries, etc., are pretty much on a genetically pre-determined path and there's little you can do in a positive way to affect the. Research indicates that when the developing fetus hears highly organized music or when the mother sings to him, more neural connections are created in the brain which creates a greater, more complex neural infrastructure. Once baby is born, you have to maintain that rich neural infrastructure with lots of interaction. If you're pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant, start learning your songs and buying your CD's. Let me know if I can help!

Music, the Brain, and Memory

I have been studying the use of music with dementia and Alzheimer's patients for many years, but tonight I want to share with you some exciting information about music and memory for all of us! The following is from http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html<

The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart's music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activate the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, causes the brain to be more capable of processing information.

Brain Comes Alive to Sound of Music

Brain Comes Alive to Sound of Music - Finding offers hope for variety of cures Los Angeles Times, November 11, 1998

The music that makes the foot tap, the fingers snap and the pulse quicken stirs the brain at is most fundamental levels, suggesting that scientists one day may be able to retun damaged minds by exploiting rhythm, harmony and melody, according to new research presented Sunday (November 1998).
Exploring the neurobiology of music, researchers discovered direct evidence that music stimulates specific regions of the brain responsible for memory, motor control, timing and language. For the first time, researchers also have located specific areas of mental activity linked to emotional responses to music. . . .
The latest findings, presented at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Los Angeles, underscore how music--as an almost universal language of mood, emotion and desire--orchestrates a wide variety of neural systems to cast its evocative spell. "Undeniably, there is a biology of music," said Harvard University Medical School neurobiologist Mark Jude Tramo. "There is no question that there is specialization within the human brain for the processing of music. Music is biologically part of human life, just as music is aesthetically part of human life." . . .
Overall, music seems to involve the brain at almost every level. Even allowing for cultural differences in musical tastes, the researchers found evidence of music's remarkable power to affect neural activity no matter where they look in the brain, from primitive regions in all animals to more recently evolved regions thought to be distinctively human.

More benefits to playing music

A few days ago we were talking about the fact that people who listen to music use more of their brain. People who play music use even more of their brain! Right now we're in one of the biggest holidays seasons of all and every one of these celebrations focuses on special music. Want to create warm, wonderful positive memories for your children and grandchildren? Put the music on, or even better, pull out the old sheet music, guitar, violin, flute or whatever! Music reinforces all of the poitive behaviors and thoughts that you are creating every minute of every day. Don't waste a moment!

By the way, I'm having a big holiday sale on my website. If you buy a CD, tape or book, you'll get a free electronic copy of the product and you'll get free shipping though the 25th of this month! I'm also having a special on individual, personal consultations: If you buy a 30-minute consult, you'll get an additional 15 minutes free; if you buy a 60-minute consultation, you'll get an additional 30 minutes free. Don't wait! Go to http://www.healingmusicenterprises.com/NeedSomeLast-minuteGifts.htm

Want to use more of your brain? Play music!

At the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Los Angeles several years ago, Dr. Lawrence Parsons of the University of Texas-San Antonio discussed the results of his research which showed that significantly more of the brain was being used during music making that previously thought. We have been taught for years that most of us use very little of our brain but it's not because we don't want to...it's because we don't know how to access more of it! If playing music will help us use more of our brain, bring out those instruments: drums, piano, horns, harps! Let the music begin!

"An understanding of the brain locations that represent the separate aspects of music will help us identify the neural mechanisms that are specific to music, specific to language and are shared between the two," says Parsons. "The finding that there is a right brain region for notes and musical passages that corresponds in location to a left brain region for letters and words illustrates how a neural mechanism may be present in each of the two brain hemispheres becomes special adapted for analogous purposes but with different information contexts."

Brains, Bicycles, and Brooks Hill

How does the brain think up music? Why do certain songs just pop into your mind at especially opportune times? Earlier today I was riding my shiny new red bike and I was thinking about a time about 20 years ago when I was doing a bike ride with the local bike club. Somehow I had missed the information that this ride would include a very, very steep hill, nick-named "The Wall." I always hated to get off my bike and walk it up a hill and so I put it in the lowest "granny gear" and stood up to pedal up the steep, steep hill. As I slowed down to a crawl a song popped into my head and I suddenly found myself pedalled in precise rhythm to "one, little two little three little indians..." Over and over I sang this song (internally) as I made my way up this hill. It was amazing how this seemed to give me the rhythm and the purpose and the distraction that I needed. Much sooner than I expected I was at the top of the hill, ego and reputation intact. Amazing!

What makes music sound "scary"?

With Halloween just around the corner, I've
been contemplating what makes music scary. Some of my younger
readers may not know that for a couple of decades, movies were silent.
In other words, the audience just read the dialogue at the bottom of the
screen, and a pianist sat to the side of the screen and literally
improvised whatever music seemed appropriate to what was happening on the
screen. This was quite an art and just anyone couldn't do it.
The musician had to be able to represent not only horror and fear but also romance, humor, religious feeling and tremendous joy.

Now that movies have soundtracks, the
music that has been composed for them will be among the classics of
tomorrow. The scary movies have some of the most famous themes.
Two that come to mind immediately are the themes from "Jaws" and "Psycho."
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is a definite classic horror film. It's
music, by Bernard Herrmann, truly evokes fear and panic. The famous shower
scene music (the screeching violins) is parodied and copied in media all
over the world.

Of course, most of this music is in a minor
key and incorporates sudden changes of dynamics (louds and softs).
You might also hear unusual instruments such as a digiridoo or perhaps a
sitar. The purpose is to create an atmosphere that is unfamiliar; a
soundscape that disorients and confuses. Have a fun Halloween and
pay attention to the music

How does your brain listen to music?

According to the Harvard Gazette: Your inner ear contains a spiral sheet that the sounds of music pluck like a guitar string. This plucking triggers the firing of brain cells that make up the hearing parts of your brain. At the highest station, the auditory cortex, just above your ears, these firing cells generate the conscious experience of music. Different patterns of firing excite other ensembles of cells, and these associate the sound of music with feelings, thoughts, and past experiences.

I've written quite a bit about how music elicits tremendous emotion when you hear songs from your adolescence or teen years. This music can shift you to a whole different emotional state and place. Now you know a little more about it!

Music on the Brain

At the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Mark Tramo is doing research on how music affects the brain. His research also suggests that even babies have specific musical likes and dislikes. The dark stripe on the model brain he holds marks an area particularly sensitive to rhythm, melody, and harmony. The good doctor says that "They begin to respond to music while still in the womb. At the age of 4 months, dissonant notes at the end of a melody will cause them to squirm and turn away. If they like a tune, they may coo. "

"Music is in our genes," says Mark Jude Tramo, a musician, prolific songwriter, and neuroscientist at the Harvard Medical School. "Many researchers like myself are trying to understand melody, harmony, rhythm, and the feelings they produce, at the level of individual brain cells. At this level, there may be a universal set of rules that governs how a limited number of sounds can be combined in an infinite number of ways."
"All humans come into the world with an innate capability for music," agrees Kay Shelemay, professor of music at Harvard. "At a very early age, this capability is shaped by the music system of the culture in which a child is raised. That culture affects the construction of instruments, the way people sound when they sing, and even the way they hear sound. By combining research on what goes on in the brain with a cultural understanding of music, I expect we'll learn a lot more than we would by either approach alone."

Imagine how wonderful it would be if music could provide one powerful path to peace!

Can Mozart's Music Make you Smarter?

Many of you have probably heard of "The Mozart Effect." The original research, done in California at UC Irvine, showed that Mozart's Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos helped highschool students score higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test than students who listend to other music before the exam or those listened to nothing. This was exciting news and was widely reported in the media. Later, some marketers began suggesting that Mozart's music actually raised your IQ and "made you smarter." Not true.

Neuromusicologists suggest that Mozart's music may help you to organize your thoughts and may be good to listen before or during a task. It's also beautiful, brilliant music. But it won't make you smarter! Sorry.

Why are musical memories so powerful?

There is considerable research showing that the music we listen to in our "courting years" is the music that means the most to us in our last few decades of life. Think about it...what did you listen to when you were in high school? Was it the Platters, the Beatles, the Carpenters, Madonna, Cindy Lauper??? It seems that every generation thinks that the music from their courting years is the best. Why? Could it be that when we're "falling in love" in our teen years, the power neurochemicals released in our brains imprint the music in an indelible way?

Think about it...go back in time and let me know what you think!

Alice

www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com
www.DrCashPrefers.com

Music and the EEG

Did you know that you have electricity in your body and your brain? This is not a theory, it's a fact! One of the most important medical tests that exists to diagnose brain problems is the EEG.

Music and the EEG
There have not been many experiments that have looked to see how the brain processes music. Measurements of brain activity using the electroencephalogram (EEG) have shown that both the right and left hemispheres are responsive to music.

Other researchers have recorded neuronal activity from the temporal lobe of patients undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. During this study, awake patients heard either a song by Mozart, a folk song or the theme from "Miami Vice". These different kinds of music had different effects on the neurons in the temporal lobe. The Mozart song and folk song reduced the activity in 48% of the neurons while the theme from Miami Vice reduced the activity in only 26% of the neurons. Also the Miami Vice music increased the activity in 74% of the neurons while Mozart and folk music increase the activity in only about 20% of the neurons. Some of the neurons had action potentials that kept time with the rhythm of the music. Although these results do show that the temporal lobe is probably involved with some aspect of music, it is unclear exactly how this area of the brain is used in the appreciation of music.
You can read about this and more at http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/music.html#eeg

Comments and questions welcomed! My website is www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com

Welcome to the Brain and Music!

Scientific research is teaching us more every day about our brains. As a musician and a therapist, the most exciting thing for me is how music affects our brain. It would seem that sometimes music can even heal the brain.

With an increase in diagnoses such as ADD, ADHD, autism and behavior disorders, it is exciting to see that music can be a powerful, non-addictive, non-invasive intervention.

Over the next many months and years, I hope you will post to this blog and tell me your own stories about music and the brain.

See you online!

Dr. Alice H. Cash, LCSW
www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com