Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Music a "mega-vitamin" for the brain

According to some researchers, the brain's special relationship with music is increasingly being used for its rehabilitative and therapeutic benefits.  Patients suffering from aphasia, dementia, even Alzheimer's have enjoyed at least a few benefits from differing varieties of music therapy.  Check out the entire story on cnn.com.  

One interesting feature of this special relationship concerns memory resilience.

Musical memories also seem to be more resilient to neural degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and dementia, enabling therapists to use familiar tunes to cue memories which might otherwise have been lost.

One American World War II veteran whose dementia was so severe he couldn't remember his own name and would barely acknowledge his own wife was brought alive through ballroom dancing and the music of Frank Sinatra, the sufferer still able to lead his wife through the foxtrot as if it was the 1940s.


Scott.  Paul.  Does this cue anything?


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