Music Therapy and Neurology

“It's important to know that musical skills or ‘talent’ are not required prerequisites to enrolling in music therapy services. Anyone can benefit from music therapy because music is an intrinsic, human language. From in utero, through every stage of our development, and even through end-of-life, we as humans understand the language of music. Our bodies naturally synchronize to rhythm (from tapping our toes all the way down to our heart beats), we understand when a melody sounds happy or sad independently of the lyrics, and we can use music to express our deepest emotions. Those emotions that are beyond words, beyond description. And, importantly, we can be heard, and understood.“

This is a quote from Kaylee Allen, Founder & Owner of Seattle Music Therapy LLC. Neurology Research has long indicated that music has the potential to boost concentration and performance on cognitive tasks such as writing or spatial reasoning, and that music can also be a powerful tool for emotional regulation. Plus One Foundation has been providing programming in music therapy to create classes to help with positive responses to the brain for people affected with brain conditions.

Research has demonstrated that in particular patients with neurological disorders such as dementia, stroke, Parkinson's disease and Autism Spectrum Disorder respond to music therapy.

The benefit of music is cognitive, psychosocial, behavioral, and motor. According to the Youth Medical Journal, when a brain is viewed with music therapy the cerebellum, the frontal regions, and the hippocampus each are positively activated. The cerebellum perceives music with a strong production of rhythm and evokes emotional reactions; the Frontal lobe neurons field memory recollection to performing daily tasks; the hippocampus is part of the limbic system and music has been shown to trigger positive emotions and reactions in the limbic system.