Diya Chatterjee1, Shantala Hegde2, Michael Thaut3. 1. Senior Research Fellow, Music Cognition Laboratory, Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS, India. 2. Associate Professor and Wellcome DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellow, Clinical Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neurosciences Center and Music Cognition Laboratory, Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru, India. 3. Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory and Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The plastic nature of the human brain lends itself to experience and training-based structural changes leading to functional recovery. Music, with its multimodal activation of the brain, serves as a useful model for neurorehabilitation through neuroplastic changes in dysfunctional or impaired networks. Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) contributes to the field of neurorehabilitation using this rationale. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to present a discourse on the concept of neuroplasticity and music-based neuroplasticity through the techniques of NMT in the domain of neurological rehabilitation. METHODS: The article draws on observations and findings made by researchers in the areas of neuroplasticity, music-based neuroplastic changes, NMT in neurological disorders and the implication of further research in this field. RESULTS: A commentary on previous research reveal that interventions based on the NMT paradigm have been successfully used to train neural networks using music-based tasks and paradigms which have been explained to have cross-modal effects on sensorimotor, language and cognitive and affective functions. CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal gains using music-based interventions highlight the brain plasticity inducing function of music. Individual differences do play a predictive role in neurological gains associated with such interventions. This area deserves further exploration and application-based studies.
BACKGROUND: The plastic nature of the human brain lends itself to experience and training-based structural changes leading to functional recovery. Music, with its multimodal activation of the brain, serves as a useful model for neurorehabilitation through neuroplastic changes in dysfunctional or impaired networks. Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) contributes to the field of neurorehabilitation using this rationale. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to present a discourse on the concept of neuroplasticity and music-based neuroplasticity through the techniques of NMT in the domain of neurological rehabilitation. METHODS: The article draws on observations and findings made by researchers in the areas of neuroplasticity, music-based neuroplastic changes, NMT in neurological disorders and the implication of further research in this field. RESULTS: A commentary on previous research reveal that interventions based on the NMT paradigm have been successfully used to train neural networks using music-based tasks and paradigms which have been explained to have cross-modal effects on sensorimotor, language and cognitive and affective functions. CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal gains using music-based interventions highlight the brain plasticity inducing function of music. Individual differences do play a predictive role in neurological gains associated with such interventions. This area deserves further exploration and application-based studies.
Authors: Michael H Thaut; James C Gardiner; Dawn Holmberg; Javan Horwitz; Luanne Kent; Garrett Andrews; Beth Donelan; Gerald R McIntosh Journal: Ann N Y Acad Sci Date: 2009-07 Impact factor: 5.691