Why Music Therapy Makes Sense Submitted by Vivian Hong
than words can express. With its incredible appeal, moving power, and emotional and chemical effects on the human brain, it is not surprising that scientists have heavily studied the healing power of music and found some conclusive evidence of its aptitude. However, even before formal scientific study began, music was prevalent in human communities as entertainment, and utilized in treatment of disease.
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The question has been perfectly phrased by Josie Glausiusz in an article she wrote for Discover regarding the genetic mystery of music. “If the ability to appreciate music is ingrained in the human brain, could music making have evolved to help us survive and reproduce? Is it akin to language and the ability to solve compli- cated problems, attributes that have enhanced human survival? ... Why? Why has music spread to every country and every people in the world? Why is music used to rouse armies, praise God, and bury the dead?” She discusses studies that could point to even the most rudimentary bits of music that could benefit humans, for example, a mother’s lullaby increasing infants’ survival rate and ability. There is also an incredible amount of evidence pointing to a correlation between music listening/making and alleviating stress by signaling a decreased production of cortisol, a stress hormone. This decrease in cortisol is also linked to a heightened immune response.
Music has been documented as assisting greatly in drawing people out of comas and catatonic states as well as aiding them in performing other seemingly impossible feats such as non-speaking stroke patients who become able to sing and thus communicate again. MRI’s show that healthy areas of the brain compensate for injured parts and music is the facilitating conduit that helps the brain find this path. Undamaged areas of the brain, such as the regions that moderate the rhythmic and tonal aspects of language, can be accessed through music to reach communication, and bypass dam- aged speech pathways. This same method can be tailored to different disorders and different damaged areas of the brain as the effect of music on cognitive and motor functions and mental states is further studied.
People in different cultures and in different time periods have used music making and music listening to treat mental and physical disorders. Everything from the melody and rhythm of music to its emotional and social impact have been used medicinally in civiliza-
28 Natural Nutmeg - December 2015
hen even our own vocal chords and bodies can become instruments, music is an almost universal experience to man that communicates and touches a deeper part of us
tions from fourth millennium B.C. Egypt to Shamans in Peru to the Ashanti people of Ghana. An article in the Scientific American Mind listed helpful attributes of music as follows: physical, emotional, engaging, permits synchronization, social, persuasive, and per- sonal. Music can improve a large range of issues including memory, speech skills, and motor functions. Because music can help the brain discover alternate pathways around the damaged areas of the brain, it is incredibly helpful in assisting treatment of autism where there is a range of complex neurodevelopmental disorders. Every- thing from physical coordination to verbal speech to emotional and mental well-being can be helped by music therapy.
Music Therapy in Treating Autism
In people diagnosed with autism, there are marked issues with the frontal lobe and absence of certain mirror neurons causing a decrease in ability to interact socially and communicate effectively. The frontal lobe (emotional center) can be imprinted upon more with music than with thinking because of the inherent emotional, cognitive, and sensory nature of music. Music can be used as a ve- hicle to get to an inner unconscious place that words cannot reach and create a bond that words cannot form. Melody, harmony, tone, vibration and rhythm circumvent the issues that autistic people have with perceiving meaning from facial and verbal cues and act to- gether as a different, more emotional language that increases access to true feelings, reactions, and communication potential.
Additionally, there is an overdevelopment of short-range brain connections present in those diagnosed with autism that often causes autistic children to focus with extreme detail on sensory experiences. This particularity might be the cause of why many autistic children enjoy making and learning music and have incred- ible abilities relating to music, such as absolute pitch. This positive response to music can be capitalized on to open children with autism up to treatments that assist in engagement in social activities, helping them to acquire social, language, and motor skills. Music has also been found to activate areas of the brain relating to social ways of thinking. This helps those diagnosed with autism to imagine the emotions of the musician playing the music and then in turn imagine how others might feel as well. These music treatments help counteract any dysfunction by inducing changes in neural circuitry.
Music also helps to strengthen connections between the two hemispheres of the brain, especially in children as shown in multi- ple studies. Additional to the physical stimulation of the sensory and emotional systems, music is processed by both brain hemispheres. A
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