Music Therapy in Session
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There are many individuals who suffer from brain-induced damages or sicknesses today. Recently, music has been used as a remediation tool for traumatic brain injuries. Music therapy has shown improvements in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, and speech or language impediments. Patients have gained significant remediation in motor functioning skills such as arm or hand control. This has lead researchers to hypothesize that music not only engages the motor system of the brain but also the cognitive functions of the brain as well.
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“It seems plausible that engaging in music would not only stimulate the various centers of the brain including the emotion areas but music can also be systematically used in altering and regulating the cognitive processes involved, which can be further generalized to non-music domains of functioning. So much so, musicians are considered as the best model to study neural plasticity due to the intense training involving sensorimotor training such as music.” - Shantala Hedge
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A recent study was done on a patient with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson patients barely have the initiative to do actions on their own. However, this study showed tehya re capable of dancing and singing with the aid of musical cues. It was actually very fascinating. This effect was observed when Parkinson patients were asked to walk with another person in a rhythmic tempo. When the other person stopped walking, it was like the subject would lose the ability to continue walking. An important aspect of
musical therapy is finding the proper kind
of music that the patient will respond to. a music therapist reported, “If music is present,
its tempo and speed take precedence over
the Parkinsonism, and allow Parkinson
patients to return, while the music lasts, to
their own rate of moving, that which was
natural for them before their illness. Music
resists all attempts at hurrying or slowing,
and imposes its own tempo.”
A nine-year-old boy was shown to respond to music therapy after showing no improvement or success from other therapies. “Severe depression, aggressive acting out, and emotional dysregulation had prevented the child from participating in school” (Herman, F., 1996). The music therapy session worked to improve the boy’s attention span and his self-expression of emotions. As the sessions continued, the boy’s impulsivity was curbed, and his mood became significantly better. Herman reported that after the music therapy sessions were completed, the boy was able to return to school. He was able to concentrate and focus better in school, and he even learned to read.