Health and Music: Beautiful notes are beneficial for the brain

In one hospital in New York Bronx,in the late 1960s, a serious patient who due to brain stroke, lost the power of speech has been recovering for two years. Physicians who treated him found that his injury was lifelong, until one day the hospital staff was not aware of the patient's singing. He struggled as he spoke, but it was a drastic improvement.

A doctor who had heard him singing since then started singing along with him for several times a week. Even she tried to get him a small, child-friendly accordion that helped her in this unusual therapy. After several months of persistent exercise, the man knew that he was singing many of the whole songs, and soon the full power of speech came back to him.

Unfortunately, although nearly 50 years have passed since then, this unique method has not been given a chance, and it is often disputed. No matter that later a neurosurgeon from the same hospital in the Bronx, proved with his experiments unquestionably that healing power of music therapy to people recovering from a stroke, the music therapy was completely neglected. It was only in a hospital where most of the medical staff were kept.

However, sooner, more and more neurologists have been interested and began to study how music works on the human brain. Today, expert research of the entire human body and the brain is greatly facilitated thanks to modern technology. With it, real-time monitoring of all processes that are currently taking place in the brain can be seen. In this way it is also seen how the brain responds to music, what happens in the mind of a man who listens or composes music.

The most up to date scanners, magnetic resonance imaging and other medical devices used for brain testing have definitely confirmed that music has a tremendous impact on brain activity. The causal links between musical therapy and recovery of patients with cerebral palsy are now indisputable. It is quite obvious that music has a beneficial effect on the stroke rehabilitation process.

According to one Finnish study conducted by scientists from the University of Helsinki, active listening and relaxation with music leads to the activation of a wide network of neurons in different brain regions that directly affect the attention, speech, memory, emotional development and human motion.

In this study, there were 60 recuperative patients who were classified into three groups. Some of the most popular songs were released, others listened to audiobooks, while those from the third group could choose to choose what they want to listen to. In the next two months, patients from all the groups had to listen to the audio tracks for 60 minutes intense, every day. At the same time, neurologists and psychologists worked on all common estimates. The end result showed that those who listened to music began to regain the ability of verbal memory and concentration and to improve their mood.

Although it has not yet been determined which exact mechanism in the brain contributes to this improvement, the study has shown that intense listening to music can significantly increase the chances of cognitive recovery and mood swings in stroke survivors. Mood is equally important as the return of cognitive abilities, as it eliminates the possibility of falling into depression that is very common in patients undergoing a long process of uncertain recovery.

Listening to music has many positive effects. This was shown by a study conducted at the University of Barcellona. According to his results, listening to music enhances the recovery and coordination of the upper extremities. The effect is better when music is heard, played and sung in the group, and the best if the group has the ability to use metronome.

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