Music Therapy Maven » neuroscience

Book Review: Why We Like Music

Kimberly — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:06:46 +0000

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I am super-excited to share with you a book recently introduced to me: Why We Like Music: Ear, Emotion, Evolution. The book was originally published in Italy about 5 years. It has been translated into English by Stephen Thomson Moore and released just two months ago by New World Media.

Here’s the short version of this review: If you love reading Levitin, then you’ll love reading this book! I think it’s a must-read for any music therapist…and for anyone who is interested in why it is music touches us so deeply.

Here’s the longer review…

The author is science writer Silvia Bencivello. According to her bio, Ms. Bencivello is not only a writer, but also a radio and TV personality with a background in medicine. Which tells me–and which is apparent in her book–that she knows what she is talking about…and knows how to talk about it in an engaging and easy-to-read fashion.

What was especially interesting to me was that Why We Like Music not only nicely summarizes the music neuroscience research from the 1990s and early 2000s, but it also goes more deeply into music’s role in our evolution. In fact, Bencivello pulls together research not just from evolutionary psychology, but also animal research, neuroscience, and infant development.

Better yet, Bencivello doesn’t just summarize the research, but she interprets it and describes it in an accessible way. With lots of stories and anecdotes along the way to boot.

The biggest down-side to this book is that it didn’t get published in English sooner! And what if she had written it this year? Who knows what Bencivello would have had to say about all the fabulous music neuroscience research that has happened over the past 5 years.

In short, I highly, highly recommend this book if you are professionally or personally interested in why we like and respond to music. It’s available in print and Kindle edition on Amazon, as well as in the Apple iBookstore.

I leave you, then, with an excerpt from the book…What do you think?

——————————————————————————————-

(page 73-74)

PROTOLANGUAGE…

Tecumseh Fitch is a psychologist at St. Andrews University, Scotland, as well as an amateur musician—his “I Don’t Believe in Evolution,” heard in sneak preview at the Festival of Sciences in Rome in January 2006,10 is certainly not to be missed. Fitch is one of those who believe that all that is needed to dismantle the theory of human beings using music as a sexual attractor are a couple of observations:

In the animal kingdom, it is true, it is almost always the males who sing, and they do so especially during mating season. But there are also splendid examples of species in which males and females sing together, as happens with tropical birds. However, for us this is not the case at all. Among humans, both males and females have the same musical abilities. These abilities appear long before sexual maturity. Indeed, we already hear music while still in the womb! (11)

Thus, the fact that a love song can create the right atmosphere during a date does not mean that music was created in order to make us mate. In the same way, the fact that young musicians—from the guitarist who sings on the beach to the pop star in a boy band—are often surrounded by pretty girls has little to do with the erotic potential of music. This, according to Fitch, is more likely to be linked to music’s emotional content and the ability that any song may have to move us, depending on our personal tastes. Moreover, unlike other animal species, it is difficult in the case of human beings to claim that males and females have different abilities, or even different musical tastes—indeed, it is obvious that interest in music is completely independent of reproductive capacity or sexual orientation.

There is a fundamental difference between how humans and animals make use of music. For us music is above all a pleasure, whereas other species need it primarily for communication.

So even though we may interpret the sounds produced by animals as what we would call music, their function is more similar to what we consider as language.

This is why those who deal with the question of evolution and the origin of our musicality cannot help but focus on the relationships between music and language development. This is also true because of the undeniable similarity between the structures that we use in order to sing and talk, listen to music and follow a conversation: our voices, our ears and our brains.

However, the story of evolution has taught us that our mechanisms of communication did not simply appear just to allow us to talk, in the same way as our eyes did not appear just to let us see, and so forth. These are systems that evolved through a series of chance events and proved to be more advantageous than others because they enabled the development of various abilities (or improved some pre-existing possibilities), which in turn made it easier to survive and to reproduce in a particular environment. In fact, the structures we use to produce our voices and those we use to hear the words of others in a conversation also exist in many other animals. The larynx with the vocal cords and the cochlea in the inner ear are not peculiarities found only in our species, nor is their only function that of letting us speak and sing, even though we humans use them mostly for this purpose. When these structures appeared, they turned out to be highly advantageous solutions to general problems of communication and perception: having vocal cords that vibrate with the passage of air while you breathe out made it possible to create sounds or shouts. The ability to hear the noises made by other animals moving among the vegetation was an obvious advantage, both as prey or predator.

In the struggle for survival, combining the two things—being able to call out to a companion to warn it of the presence of a hunter, safe in the knowledge that the cry would be heard and understood, or then again, being able to frighten prey with a roar and then follow it while it retreated through the foliage by listening to the noise it made—gave animals powerful weapons. Later, humans also learned to use these same weapons in order to talk—and who knows how, when and why, also to make music.

According to Fitch, the connections between music and language are clear: music is a protolanguage from which our spoken communication evolved—and it stuck around even after the birth of language because we nd it pleasing. The first person to come up with this theory was Charles Darwin, according to whom, in addition to being used as means of seduction, early musical vocalizations were the origin of words.

Explore My Other Projects

Kimberly — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:41:56 +0000

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Today, I’m excited to share with you some articles I’ve written recently that have been published on other sites. One of the “perks” of being a blogger–for me, anyway–is having the opportunity to share my passion (music therapy!) through the internet ethers.

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately:

Episode 15 of the Music Therapy Round Table podcast, News, Announcements, and MWR-AMTA Conference Round-up: With my lovely co-hosts Rachel Rambach and Michelle Erfurt, we interview students and professionals who attended the Midwestern regional music therapy conference and share exciting developments happening in our own lives.
The Music-Speech-Rehab Connection on Psychology Today: Read about an exciting study published in 2006 that explored how singing can help our brain re-wire for speech.
Music Training Roadblocks: How to Jump-Start Your Child’s Development on the Cora Carolina blog: There’s mounting evidence to support how beneficial music training is for our children…yet parents can still have lots of questions. Here are some helpful tips and information to get you started.

Be sure to check back here on Wednesday. I’ll be sharing information I learned from an awesome “lunch and learn” I attended at last month’s regional music therapy conference. The topic? Copyright law.

It’s Raining Awesome YouTube Videos!

Kimberly — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:30:30 +0000

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Ever hear the saying “when it rains, it pours”? Well, it was raining awesome YouTube videos for me last week!

Below are three videos I highly recommend you watch. The first is an interview between Ellen (yes, THAT Ellen) and Jodi Picoult, author of the music therapist’s favorite new book, Sing You Home. They don’t chat about music therapy…but it’s fascinating to hear Picoult’s personal connection with some of the story lines in the novel.

The second video is a TED talk outlining, from a neuroscience perspective, 3 ways we can super-charge how the brain learns and retains new information. This video has convinced me that, yes, I really DO need to start using Prezi…

Finally, the third video is a fabulously-entertaining, auto-tuned song called “Ode to the Brain.” ‘Nuff said.

Happy watching!

Ellen Chats with Jodi Picoult

3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning

Ode to the Brain

P.S. Special thanks to @minutrition on Twitter, who forwarded the two TED videos to me. Thank you!

Watch and Learn: The Mirror Neuron Song

It’s Brain Awareness Week!

Kimberly — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:00:40 +0000

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Did you know that this week is Brain Awareness Week (BAW)? I didn’t!

According to the Dana Foundation, BAW is a global campaign aimed at increasing “public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.” I don’t know the history behind how BAW got started, but it now happens every March. BAW highlights efforts of various organizations around the world who work to educate and get people excited about the brain.

The Dana Foundation lists the types of events these organizations are providing, such as:

Open days at neuroscience labs
Museum exhibitions about the brain
Lectures on brain-related topics
Displays at malls, libraries, and community centers
Classroom workshops

Some organizations are even taking BAW beyond….well, a week! Posit Science, a company specializing in brain fitness and brain training, is hosting a series of live Facebook Q&A sessions. And guess who’s one of the invited “experts”–ME!

Next Thursday, March 24th, from 12:00-1:00 pm ET, I will be available on the Posit Science Facebook page, answering questions about music and the brain. And I invite you to join me!

Not only that, but Posit Science is featuring other wonderful experts as well. If you’re interested in the best “brain foods,” how movement and exercise effects your brain, or how to make your brain “better,” then there’s a FB Q&A for you! Click here for more information.

Finally, the Dana Foundation has wonderful information about Brain Awareness Week–who’s involved, activities near you, etc. I invite you to check it out!

[VIDEO] Music as a Core Function in Our Brain

Kimberly — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:20:00 +0000

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So is it a bad thing to brag on your own blog?

The bragging isn’t just for me, it’s mostly for my husband. My husband, Steve, is a lifelong band director, conductor, and music educator. The other week, he gave a talk exploring the theory that music is a core function in our brain. He summarizes some of the writings of Dr. Michael Thaut, who uses evidence from neuroscience and archaeology to support this theory.

Armed with my handy-dandy iPhone4, I recorded the talk, then edited it in iMovie and have published it on YouTube. Enjoy:

But wait! There’s more…

Some of you may remember that last spring I started writing the blog “Your Musical Self” for Psychology Today. In my very first post, I shared a story about a gentleman I worked with while a student at Iowa. This gentleman had Parkinson’s and had various gait and balance challenges. One afternoon, through the music of Sousa, we jointly “discovered” the link between rhythm and movement.

The story caught the eyes of one of the writers for the Psychology Today print magazine. She interviewed me about that story and, guess what?, it’s in the print magazine now!

If you end up purchasing the magazine (which I recommend as there are lots of great articles and information in there!), check out page 39.

But if you just want to check out page 39, then click here to download the story. It’s in a zip file, so you’ll have to double-click it to “un-zip” and read the article.

P.S. Earlier this week I published my latest article on Psychology Today: Music Training Roadblocks. Click here to check it out.

Top 12 Reasons Why Music as Therapy Works

Kimberly — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:57:32 +0000

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UPDATE: The Posit Science article was posted! You can read it here.

I was recently invited to write an article for Posit Science, a company dedicated to brain fitness and interested in neuroscience. Although it’s not yet posted, I wanted to share it with you, as I’ve written out many of the “arguments” I use to support why music as therapy works.

My hope is that this helps you as you talk about and educate others on music therapy.You won’t always go through each of these reasons in detail, but maybe it’ll give you some ammunition!

Top 12 Brain-Based Reasons Why Music as Therapy Works

“Our bodies like rhythm and our brains like melody and harmony.” (Daniel Levitin)

There are over 5,000 board-certified music therapists in the United States. And there’s one question we get asked daily:

What is music therapy?

According to the American Music Therapy Association, “Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.”

Simply put, we use music to make your life better. Whether you need help socially, cognitively, physically, emotionally, or developmentally, music can help you get better…and music therapists trained on how to do that.

What’s more interesting, though, is why it works. When used properly, music can be an incredibly powerful treatment tool. And not just because it’s fun, relaxing, and motivating, but because music has a profound impact on our brains and our bodies.

So here are the top 12 brain-based reasons why music works in therapy:

Music is a core function in our brain. Our brain is primed early on to respond to and process music. Research has shown that day-old infants are able to detect differences in rhythmic patterns. Mothers across cultures and throughout time have used lullabies and rhythmic rocking to calm crying babies. From an evolutionary standpoint, music precedes language. We don’t yet know why, but our brains are wired to respond to music, even though it’s not “essential” for our survival.
Our bodies entrain to rhythm. Have you ever walked down the street, humming a song in your head, and noticed that your walking to the beat? That’s called entrainment. Our motor systems naturally entrain, or match, to a rhythmic beat. When a musical input enters our central nervous system via the auditory nerve, most of the input goes to the brain for processing. But some of it heads straight to motor nerves in our spinal cord. This allows our muscles to move to the rhythm without our having to think about it or “try.” It’s how we dance to music, tap our foot to a rhythm, and walk in time to a beat. This is also why music therapists can help a person who’s had a stroke re-learn how to walk and develop strength and endurance in their upper bodies.
We have physiologic responses to music. Every time your breathing quickens, your heart-rate increases, or you feel a shiver down your spine, that’s your body responding physiologically to music. Qualified music therapists can use this to help stimulate a person in a coma or use music to effectively help someone relax.
Children (even infants) respond readily to music. Any parent knows that it’s natural for a child to begin dancing and singing at an early age. My kids both started rocking to music before they turned one. And have you seen the YouTube video of the baby dancing to Beyonce? Children learn through music, art, and play, so it’s important (even necessary) to use those mediums when working with children in therapy.
Music taps into our emotions. Have you ever listened to a piece of music and smiled? Or felt sad? Whether from the music itself, or from our associations with the music, music taps into our emotional systems. Many people use this in a “therapeutic” way, listening to certain music that makes them feel a certain way. The ability for music to easily access our emotions is very beneficial for music therapists.
Music helps improve our attention skills. I was once working with a 4-year-old in the hospital. Her 10-month-old twin sisters were visiting, playing with Grandma on the bed. As soon as I started singing to the older sister, the twins stopped playing and stared at me, for a full 3 minutes. Even from an early age, music can grab and hold our attention. This allows music therapists to target attention and impulse control goals, both basic skills we need to function and succeed.
Music uses shared neural circuits as speech. This is almost a no-brainer (no pun intended), but listening to or singing music with lyrics uses shared neural circuits as listening to and expressing speech. Music therapists can use this ability to help a child learn to communicate or help someone who’s had a stroke re-learn how to talk again.
Music enhances learning. Do you remember how you learned your ABCs? Through a song! The inherent structure and emotional pull of music makes it an easy tool for teaching concepts, ideas, and information. Music is an effective mnemonic device and can “tag” information, not only making it easy to learn, but also easy to later recall.
Music taps into our memories. Have you ever been driving, heard a song on the radio, then immediately been taken to a certain place, a specific time in your life, or a particular person? Music is second only to smell for it’s ability to stimulate our memory in a very powerful way. Music therapists who work with older adults with dementia have countless stories of how music stimulates their clients to reminisce about their life.
Music is a social experience. Our ancestors bonded and passed on their stories and knowledge through song, stories, and dance. Even today, many of our music experiences are shared with a group, whether playing in band or an elementary music class, listening to jazz at a restaurant, or singing in church choir. Music makes it easy for music therapists to structure and facilitate a group process.
Music is predictable, structured, and organized–and our brain likes it! Music often has a predictable steady beat, organized phrases, and a structured form. If you think of most country/folk/pop/rock songs you know, they’re often organized with a verse-chorus structure. They’re organized in a way that we like and enjoy listening to over and over again. Even sound waves that make up a single tone or an entire chord are organized in mathematical ratios–and our brains really like this predictability and structure.
Music is non-invasive, safe and motivating. We can’t forget that most people really enjoy music. This is not the most important reason why music works in therapy, but it’s the icing on the cake.

If you enjoyed this article and are interested in learning more, I’d recommend the following books and websites: This is Your Brain on Music (Levitin), The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music (Peretz & Zatorre), Rhythm, Music, and the Brain (Thaut), The American Music Therapy Association, and The Dana Foundation.

Handouts from the 2010 #mwamta Conference

Kimberly — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:02:29 +0000

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For those who attended my presentations at the Midwestern Regional Music Therapy Conference in Fort Collins this past weekend, here are the handouts!

“Functional Neuroscience for the Clinical Music Therapist”
Click here to download a handout (pdf) from this presentation

“Music Therapy in a Web 2.0 World: How You Can Harness the Power of the Internet”
Click here to download a handout (pdf) from this CMTE

P.S. Even if you didn’t attend the session, feel free to download the handouts! Tomorrow, I’ll post my highlights from the conference.

Video: The 3 Neurotransmitters

Kimberly — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:30:07 +0000

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Last fall, you heard The Neurodevelopment Song. In January, it was Watch and Learn: The Mirror Neuron Song. Today, I bring you the third song in this (yet-to-be-named) series: The 3 Neurotransmitters.

As therapists, we literally re-wire the brains of our clients. That type of re-wiring happens because of certain chemicals in our brain, called neurotransmitters.

The three neurotransmitters mentioned in this song (norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine) are used when “therapy” happens. That is, they’re used in the process of helping our clients learn new skills. These brain chemicals are released when we grab their attention, hold it by making the task interesting, introduce novelty to the task, and making it motivating.

(The lighting isn’t great on this video, but I’ll dedicate the light-blue tinge to my husband’s basketball team, the top-seeded UK Wildcats!!!)

P.S. I am very excited to announce that I’m one of the newest bloggers for Psychology Today! I published my first article earlier this week–From Beyonce to Sousa: The Power of a Beat. Thank you for everyone who has been so supportive and encouraging to me this week!!!

UPDATE: Per a reader’s request, here are the lyrics to “The 3 Neurotransmitters”

The Three Neurotransmitter
by Kimberly Sena Moore, MM, NMT-F, MT-BC

1) The brain undergoes tremendous change
In the first 3 years of life
After this you’re pretty much set
(Which is why you want to start out right)
But our brains reorganize and change
It’s called neuroplasticity
This works due to certain chemicals
Namely these three…

2) Our brain, it changes
Because of neurotransmitters
They help reorganize and change
Our brain’s parameters
There’s norepinephrine
And acetylcholine
Also dopamine
The 3 neurotransmitters

3) The Alerting Network
Tells us to pay attention
Uses norepinephrine
To drive new connections
Starting in the locus coeruleus
It alerts us to the stimulus
Use novelty, key for each of us
To release norepinephrine

4) The Orienting Network
Starts in the basal forebrain
Enhances our focus
With acetylcholine
Uses arousal and reward
Don’t let the work be a chore
Make it motivating, interesting, don’t be a bore
To release acetylcholine

5) The Executive Network
Is like a “save” button
Uses dopamine
Which rewards and punishes
If you want to retain new information
It helps to have some motivation
Keep reinforcing the situation
To release the dopamine.

6) So know you know about
Neurotransmitters
And how you can use them
To change brain parameters
They help us pay attention
To focus our intentions
And respond to motivation
The three neurotransmitters

5…No! 6 Bits of Mish-Mash and Nuggets

Kimberly — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:10:53 +0000

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Today’s article is a bit of a mish-mash of different topics. I tried to find a common thread between them…but no luck. And I didn’t want to focus on one particular area because I thought you’d be interested in all of them! (You are, aren’t you?)

So here are 5 bits of mish-mash and nuggets, in no particular order:

1) Music Therapy Helps Toddlers with Cochlear Implants

This article appeared awhile ago, but it’s worth sharing again! Last month, Israeli researchers reported that music therapy could help toddlers with cochlear implants learn how to talk. The rehabilitation progress for these children is typically slow, but music helps to teach them nonverbal communication and increase their spontaneous communication. To read more, click here.

2) Readers Comment on the 80-20 Rule

Last Thursday, I asked you if you knew the 80-20 rule..and many did! I had only heard about it from a business and time management perspective, but it turns out this rule is applicable in many situations:

Ginny uses it when providing feedback to music therapy students–80% of it’s positive and 20% constructive.
Aria learned about it in her food services class–20% of her customers will contribute to 80% of her sales, so her marketing should be geared dtowards that 20%.
Brian pointed out that 80-20 is roughly the female-male ratio in the music therapy profession (although Valerie wondered whether it was closer to 99-1!).

3) Neuroscientist: Cutting Music Education Is a Mistake

I love this story. Over the weekend, a neuroscientist from Northwestern University argued that music training has a profound impact on child development and should be a vital component of every K-12 school program.

Dr. Nina Kraus cited her own (and other’s) research supporting that music education can help typically-developing and children with disabilities more accurately encode speech. In other words, music training helps children with and without disabilities to understand and process the words and sounds they hear. To read the entire article, click here.

If you read the Music Therapy Maven, you probably agree with Dr. Kraus already. But isn’t it nice to have that support?

4) Music Therapy Helps Stroke Victims

Many of you have seen this already. If you’re a fan of Neurosong on Facebook, you’ve seen it. If you’re on the music therapy listserv, you’ve seen it. Or if your mother saw it, thought of you, and sent it to you, you’ve seen it (Mine did. Thanks, Mom!)

The article espouses the benefits of a specific intervention called Melodic Intonation Therapy (or MIT) that helps people with expressive aphasia re-learn how to talk again. (Expressive aphasia means a person struggles to express language, or use words and sentences).

The reason MIT works is that singing uses both common and unique neural pathways as speaking. Therefore, if a patient can’t talk, we use singing to teach functional words and phrases. Through singing, we are re-wiring their brain to re-learn how to talk.

The technique was developed by a speech therapist in the 1970s (in an article by Sparks and Decks, I believe) and is also taught if you take the Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) Training Institute.

You should also know that, even though the only person quoted in the article is a neurology professor, a board-certified music therapist trained in NMT provided the MIT treatments.

To read the article, click here.

5) Watch Music Therapy in Action

I recently heard Janice Harris interview Andrew Knight, a music therapy professor at the University of North Dakota, on her radio program. Since Andrew is a friend of mine, I went to check out the UND music therapy site…and was blown away!

The coolest part, I thought, was the “Multimedia” section on the left-hand sidebar. Not only does Andrew have videos and podcasts about the UND music therapy program, he has compiled 14 different videos that all show music therapy in action. Watch them all here.

(And for a bit of shameless self-promotion–the last video is of one of my clinicians, Aileen Ravalo Voyles, and our current intern, Lindsay Marsh, working with one of our clients:D)

P.S. I did a little work on my blog over the weekend, mostly on the right-hand sidebar. What do you think? Is it easy to navigate and use? If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions about this or any topic related to music therapy, please contact me.

UPDATE:

6) Video Interview with Dr. Barbara Reuer and Dr. Patel

Here’s a wonderful interview with Dr. Reuer, a music therapist in San Diego (and my former internship supervisor!), and Dr. Patel, world-renowned music neuroscientist. They talk about music, it’s effect on the brain, and how it can be applied clinically. It’s long (30 min.) and wonderful. Enjoy!

Music Therapy Maven » neuroscience

Book Review: Why We Like Music

PROTOLANGUAGE…

Top 10 Little-Read Posts from the Maven Archives

Explore My Other Projects

It’s Raining Awesome YouTube Videos!

Ellen Chats with Jodi Picoult

3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning

Ode to the Brain

It’s Brain Awareness Week!

[VIDEO] Music as a Core Function in Our Brain

Top 12 Reasons Why Music as Therapy Works

Top 12 Brain-Based Reasons Why Music as Therapy Works

Handouts from the 2010 #mwamta Conference

Video: The 3 Neurotransmitters

5…No! 6 Bits of Mish-Mash and Nuggets