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Writer's picturePriyanka Thirumurti

How Music Affects Disorders of the Brain

Updated: Nov 3





Effects of Music Therapy as an Alternative for Depression in Children and Adolescents with ADHD

For decades, music has played a vital role in helping individuals recover from various illnesses and disorders, including mental health issues and brain diseases that impact people of all ages and cultures. In a recent study, researchers explored the effectiveness of music therapy as a treatment option for depression in children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. Their approach focused on boosting serotonin levels and enhancing stress coping skills. The study involved 43 participants, divided into two groups: those with ADHD and a control group. Music therapy sessions were conducted twice a week for three months, lasting 50 minutes each time, totaling 24 sessions. The findings revealed that music therapy had positive neurophysiological and psychological effects on the participants with ADHD. This promising intervention highlights the potential for integrating music therapy into clinical practices, offering a new avenue for supporting children and adolescents facing these challenges.

How Music Can Reduce Stress




How Music Mnemonics Aid Verbal Memory and Induce Learning-Related Brain Plasticity in Multiple Sclerosis.

A team of researchers embarked on an exciting study to explore how music mnemonics can enhance verbal memory and promote learning-related brain plasticity in individuals with multiple sclerosis. This groundbreaking research was the first of its kind to investigate whether using musical patterns for verbal learning could not only boost memory but also trigger distinct changes in brain connectivity, as measured by oscillatory network synchronizations.


Recognizing the importance of sequencing in processing verbal information, the researchers focused specifically on whether music could improve memory for ordered word lists. The results were striking: participants who learned using music showed significantly better recall of words, especially in remembering the order of paired words, compared to those who learned through spoken instruction. This finding supports the idea that music enhances memory by organizing information into a rhythmic structure, allowing the brain to chunk unrelated items into cohesive units.




How Music Can Help Patients with PTSD


How Music Therapy Symptomatically Aids Patients with Autism.

Music therapy has shown promising effects in reducing symptoms of autism, especially in enhancing emotional recognition. A German researcher explored why music therapy is particularly beneficial for people with autism. While previous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness, no model has fully explained the neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms driving these improvements. This study proposes that the key lies in how individuals with autism process pitch. Being able to perceive tonal pitch accurately is essential for recognizing emotions, such as happiness or sadness, through sound. Interestingly, the biological ability to encode pitch seems to be well-preserved in individuals with autism, even if they struggle with interpreting emotional cues in social settings. According to this model, pitch encoding through music may provide a way for people with autism to connect with emotional expressions, offering a unique path for emotional understanding outside of traditional social interactions.







Sources

1. Park, Jong-In et al. Effects of music therapy as an alternative treatment on depression in children and adolescents with ADHD by activating serotonin and improving stress coping ability. Research Square. 2022.

2. Adiaso, Krisna et al. Music listening and stress recovery in healthy individuals: A systematic review with meta-analysis of experimental studies. PLOS ONE. 2022.

3. Thaut, Michael et al. Music mnemonics aid verbal memory and induce learning-related brain plasticity in multiple sclerosis. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8;1-10. 2014.

4. Pant, Usha et al. A Neurobiological Framework for the Therapeutic Potential of Music and Sound Interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Critical Illness Survivors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022.

5. Kethrapal, Neha. Why does music therapy help in autism? Empirical Musicology Review; 4(1): 11-18. 2009.




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