Familiar music soothes people with brain damage
Listening to a favourite song might boost the brain's ability to respond to other stimuli in people with consciousness disorders, a new study has revealed.
Music has been shown to have a beneficial influence on cognitive process in healthy people and those with brain damage.
For the study, Fabien Perrin at the University of Lyon, France, and colleagues recorded brain activity in four patients - two in a coma, one in a minimally conscious state, and one in a vegetative state, while they were read a list of people's names, including the subject's own name.
The list was preceded either by the subject's favourite music that was chosen by family andfriends or by "musical noise".
While one patient listened to The Eagles' 'Hotel California', another was played the Blues Brothers' 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love'.
The researchers then repeated the experiment with ten healthy volunteers.
In all four patients, playing the music rather than musical noise enhanced the quality of the brain's subsequent response to their own name, bringing it closer to the brain response of the ten healthy volunteers to hearing their own name, whether or not it was preceded by music or musical noise.
Perrin has two theories about the effect of music on the brain.
"Listening to preferred music activates our autobiographical memory - so it could make it easier for the subsequent perception of another autobiographical stimulus such as your name," New Scientist quoted Perrin as saying.
"Another hypothesis is that music enhances arousal or awareness, so maybe it temporarily increases consciousness and the discrimination of your name becomes easier," Perrin added.
The findings of the study were presented at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness meeting in Brighton, UK, last month.
Music has been shown to have a beneficial influence on cognitive process in healthy people and those with brain damage.
For the study, Fabien Perrin at the University of Lyon, France, and colleagues recorded brain activity in four patients - two in a coma, one in a minimally conscious state, and one in a vegetative state, while they were read a list of people's names, including the subject's own name.
The list was preceded either by the subject's favourite music that was chosen by family andfriends or by "musical noise".
While one patient listened to The Eagles' 'Hotel California', another was played the Blues Brothers' 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love'.
The researchers then repeated the experiment with ten healthy volunteers.
In all four patients, playing the music rather than musical noise enhanced the quality of the brain's subsequent response to their own name, bringing it closer to the brain response of the ten healthy volunteers to hearing their own name, whether or not it was preceded by music or musical noise.
Perrin has two theories about the effect of music on the brain.
"Listening to preferred music activates our autobiographical memory - so it could make it easier for the subsequent perception of another autobiographical stimulus such as your name," New Scientist quoted Perrin as saying.
"Another hypothesis is that music enhances arousal or awareness, so maybe it temporarily increases consciousness and the discrimination of your name becomes easier," Perrin added.
The findings of the study were presented at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness meeting in Brighton, UK, last month.
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