Music May Be the New Drug

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From a paper by Fukui H, and Toyoshima K: Experience has shown that therapy using music for therapeutic purposes has certain effects on neuropsychiatric disorders (both functional and organic disorders). However, the mechanisms of action underlying music therapy remain unknown, Read More …

Mozart Wins Out over New Age Music, Again

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From a study by Rauscher FH, Shaw GL, and Ky KN: Motivated by predictions of a structured neuronal model of the cortex, we performed a behavioral experiment which showed that listening to a Mozart piano sonata produced significant short-term enhancement Read More …

Researchers Foresee Clinical Applications of the Mozart Effect

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From a study by Shaw GL, and Bodner M: Motivated by predictions from the structured trion model of the cortex, based on Mountcastle’s columnar organizational principle, behavioral experiments have demonstrated a causal short-term enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning in college students Read More …

Mozart Sonata Activates More of Your Brain

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From a study by Bodner M, Muftuler LT, Nalcioglu O, and Shaw GL: Behavioral studies, motivated by columnar cortical model predictions, have given evidence for music causally enhancing spatial-temporal reasoning. A wide range of behavioral experiments showed that listening to Read More …

Music and Art Modulate Brain Waves to Reduce Pain

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From a study by Chen AC : Pain perception and its genesis in the human brain have been reviewed recently. In the current article, the reports on pain modulation in the human brain were reviewed from higher cortical regulation, i.e. Read More …

Music Increases Frontal Brain Wave Coherence

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From a study by Peterson DA, and Thaut MH: Anecdotal and some empirical evidence suggests that music can enhance learning and memory. However, the mechanisms by which music modulates the neural activity associated with learning and memory remain largely unexplored. Read More …

Musicians Have Better Brainstems

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From a study by Wong PC, Skoe E, Russo NM, Dees T, and Kraus N: Music and speech are very cognitively demanding auditory phenomena generally attributed to cortical rather than subcortical circuitry. We examined brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch and Read More …

Sight-reading Enhances Cognitive Function

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From a study by Sluming V, Brooks J, Howard M, Downes JJ, and Roberts N: We provide neurobehavioral evidence supporting the transferable benefit of music training to alter brain function and enhance cognitive performance [emphasis added] in a nonmusical visuospatial Read More …

More Activity in Musicians’ Brains

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From a study by Grahn JA and Brett M: When we listen to rhythm, we often move spontaneously to the beat. This movement may result from processing of the beat by motor areas. Previous studies have shown that several motor Read More …