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Music Therapy and Neuroscience Le Minh Trong Section #4 I Introduction A Research Question: • How does neuroscience prove the effectiveness of music therapy in treating mental health issues? B Thesis Statement: • Neuroscience paints a compelling picture of the intricate dance between music and the brain, revealing the powerful therapeutic potential of music therapy II Discussion A Foundations of Music Therapy • Music therapists use the unique qualities of music (e.g., melody, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, pitch) within the therapeutic relationship to access patient's emotions and memories, to address social experiences, or influence behavior (Wheeler, 2015) • All structural attributes of music—including tempo, dynamics, timbre, melody, harmony, tonality, and rhythm—interact with emotional systems, preferences, and aesthetic appreciation (Thompson et al., 2023) ➢ Music’s unique qualities can be harnessed to address a variety of psychological and emotional challenges, providing a powerful therapeutic tool for individuals facing various conditions B Neurological Underpinnings of Music Therapy • Humans are drawn towards music perceived as pleasant – such as the phenomenon of chills, where music activates the same dopamine-releasing reward systems involved in eating, sex, and recreational drug use (Salimpoor, Benovoy, Larcher, Dagher, & Zatorre, 2010) • Norman-Haignere and colleagues (2015) have identified a specific region of the brain responding highly selectively to music, rather than only piggybacking brain regions devoted to non-musical behaviors such as speech, pointing to the potential involvement of this region or neural population in human evolution ➢ Music engages a vast symphony of brain regions C Empirical Evidence of Effectiveness • Music therapy is well regarded as a holistic treatment appropriate for addressing the psychosocial and spiritual needs of those with cancer and palliative conditions and their carers (Running, Shreffler-Grant, & Andrews, 2008) • Music therapy treatment may be beneficial for improving social skills in children with ASD (LaGasse, 2017) • Music listening is strongly associated with stress reduction by the decrease of physiological arousal as indicated by reduced cortisol levels, lowered heart rate, and decreases in mean arterial pressure (Martina et al., 2020) ➢ Neuroscience not only illuminates the mechanisms but also provides concrete evidence of music therapy's impact D Challenges and Future Directions • Mainstream neuroscience methods tend towards standardization and replicability, inappropriate to studying music therapy approaches predicated on personalizing and tailoring the personal and musical qualities of an intervention to each client (Magee & Stewart, 2015) • As Ansdell (2014) pointed out, in researching the effectiveness of music therapy we should acknowledge its rightful place in social life – its material, social and cultural ecology ➢ While the field of music therapy research is thriving, challenges remain III Reference List A Blythe LaGasse (2017) Social outcomes in children with autism spectrum disorder: a review of music therapy outcomes, Patient Related Outcome Measures, 8:, 2332, DOI: 10.2147/PROM.S106267 Ansdell, G (2014) Yes, but, no, but: A contrarian response to Cross (2014) Psychology of Music, 42(6), 820-825 doi: 10.1177/0305735614544189 Martina de Witte, Ana da Silva Pinho, Geert-Jan Stams, Xavier Moonen, Arjan E.R Bos & Susan van Hooren (2020) Music therapy for stress reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Health Psychology Review, 16:1, 134159, DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2020.1846580 Norman-Haignere, S., Kanwisher, N G., & McDermott, J H (2015) Distinct cortical pathways for music and speech revealed by hypothesis-free voxel decomposition Neuron, 88(6), 12811296 doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.11.035 Running, A., Shreffler-Grant, J., & Andrews, W (2008) A survey of hospices use of complementary therapy Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 10(5), 304-312 doi: 10.1097/01.NJH.0000319177.25294.e5 Salimpoor, V N., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R J (2011) Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music Nature Neuroscience, 14(2), 257-262 doi: 10.1038/nn.2726 Thompson, W F., Bullot, N J., & Margulis, E H (2023) The psychological basis of music appreciation: Structure, self, source.Psychological Review, 130(1), 260–284 https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000364 Wheeler, B L (2015) Music therapy handbook Guilford Publications