Musical way to recover from illness

Does music affect living beings? And more relevant to doctors and patients, does music help recover from an illness? A series of experiments on animals has shown that a stimulating and an enriching environment can significantly enhance recovery from a stroke. However, until now little data were available on humans.

In last month's issue of the journal Brain, scientists from Finland and Canada reported on the effect of music on patients recovering from stroke occurring in the left or right hemisphere middle cerebral artery region (causing paralysis and speaking difficulties). In the study 60 stroke patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: listening to music, listening to audio books of their choice and no listening. Each day for two months using a portable CD player, patients recovering from a stroke received many hours of music therapy, language therapy or no therapy. Over six months their neurological recovery was monitored.

The results were remarkable. Verbal memory (ability to recall a 10 word list) and focused attention (ability to stay alert for long durations) improved significantly in the music group compared to the others. Based on psychological testing, patients in the music group were less depressed and less confused compared with the patients in the no listening group.

There are several possible reasons for such a dramatic improvement. In a healthy person, music listening activates networks of neurons in the brain leading to an enhancement of attention, memory, motor function and emotion processing. While recovering from a stroke when the neuron are plastic and trying to repair themselves, listening to pleasant music enhances the interconnected networks of the subcortical and cortical brain regions resulting in improved long term recovery.

Most stroke patients spend over 70 percent of their recovery time in non-therapeutic activities. Adding music in the rehabilitation periods may provide significant improvement as well as pleasure to the recovery process. Music may also help all of us in our daily routine too.

Times of India Link

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