Study: Listening to music aids recovery from stroke

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Listening to music during the early stages of recovery from a stroke may aid the patient's rehabilitation while inhibiting the development of negative mood.
      This is the finding of a Finnish study published today in the authoritative neurological journal Brain.
      The report reveals that the cognitive recovery in the areas of verbal memory and attentiveness was greater among patients who listened to music daily, compared with patients who listened to audio books, or with patients who did not receive audio material.
     
The study, which took years to complete, was carried out by the University of Helsinki Cognitive Brain Research Unit, the University of Jyväskylä Music Therapy Unit, and the Helsinki University Central Hospital clinics of neurology and radiology.
     
"Listening to music activates a large neural network in the brain that covers areas in both hemispheres. This network controls the state of mental agility, attentiveness, semantic processing, memory, and emotion", explains researcher Teppo Särkämö.
      "Listening to music is known to improve the mood and cognitive capability of healthy individuals as well as patients with various disorders. Its possible role in neurological rehabilitation, however, has never before studied systematically", Särkämö continues.
      The finding of the Finnish research group is easy to apply. The method is an individual, easily realized, and affordable way of improving a patient’s cognitive and emotional recovery.
     
A fresh, multidisciplinary music research unit funded by the Academy of Finland has already commenced a follow-up study on the subject.
      "As we now know that passive music therapy assists in recovery, the plan is to look next into the effects of active therapy", says professor of music therapy Jaakko Erkkilä from the University of Jyväskylä.
      In the study published in Brain the patients listened to their favourite music. Despite what the name might imply, active music therapy does not rely on producing compositions, as patients cannot be expected to have musical skills.
      "The method of active music therapy is often the so-called clinical improvisation”, Erkkilä explains. In the follow-up research project the idea is to apply motor-rhythmic exercises, where there are various tasks for the hands, feet, and torso. "In such rehabilitation repetition is emphasised, as are rhythmic and motoric exercises."
     
There is currently a research boom in Finland trying to unravel the effects of music on human health and wellbeing.
      It is hoped that these projects will shed some light on how and why music therapy works.


Links:
  Cognitive Brain Research Unit, University of Helsinki
  Brain

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