How many times did you turn to music to bring you joy in happy times or comfort you when you felt down?
Music touches all of us. However, scientists have only recently attempted to quantify and explain the emotional effects of music Fakaza. Researchers have discovered that the connection between melody, the mind, and music can change how our brains and thus our bodies function.
Even though music therapy is well-known, it appears that music therapy’s healing powers over the mind and body is still being discovered. Therapists have long advocated music listening and study for anxiety relief and pain relief. Music can also be used to improve mood and emotional state.
Michael DeBakey is the surgeon who was first to successfully place an artificial heart. Medical research is showing that music can be a therapeutic tool for patients.
Doctors believe music therapy in nursing homes and hospitals can make patients feel better and help them heal more quickly. The new findings on music’s brain effects are being applied by medical professionals across the nation to help patients.
Michael Thaut and colleagues from the University of Michigan studied how stroke, cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s patients who used music to help them move faster than those who received no therapy.
Another study found that the sounds of drums could influence the body’s ability to function. Suzanne Hasner is the chairwoman of Berklee College of Music’s musictherapy department. She says even people with severe head injuries or dementia, they can still play the drums.
This article reported on results from an experiment in which researchers at the Mind-Body Wellness Center (Meadville), Pa., monitored 111 cancer patients as they played drums 30 minutes per day. Many patients were found to have stronger immune systems, and higher levels cancer-fighting genes.
Hasner says that the rehearsed songs are deeply stored in our long-term mental memory. “It is processed within the emotional portion of the brain, called the amygdala. Here is where you’ll find your first love, the music at your wedding and the first dance. Even for those with advanced disease, these memories can be retained. It can be a window. A way to reach them
According to The American Music Therapy Organization (AMTO), music therapy may help in “emotional intimacy with family caregivers, relaxation for the whole family, and meaningful, positive time spent together in an artistic way”.
Scientists are continuing to explore the reason why music is so powerful. Robert Zatorre from McGill University in Montreal and Anne Blood used positron emissions tomography (or PET scans), to see if specific brain structures were stimulated with music.
Blood and Zatorre wanted to know if 10 musicians, five men and 5 women, would choose stirring music as part of their study. PET scans were taken of the subjects as they listened for four types audio stimuli: the chosen music, general noise, and silence. Each sequence was repeated in an alternate order.