Outside Research Supports Mac's ABC Neuroscience Study

In the two years since MAC began its ABC Neuroscience study to examine the power of certain musical elements to improve toddler’s language, memory and self-regulation, much additional outside research has been published on the ability of music to improve health. It includes:

1. Science of Song: Do Lullabies Help Sick Babies? (Chang and Burbank, 5/29/08)

   Dr. Mark Tramo, Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, believes that music can help the pain and suffering of premature infants. Traditional Western lullabies were able to decrease the stress and pain response of children at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. Music therapists replied to Tramo, noting that the benefits of music therapy has been known for a long time and not given sufficient credit. In 1990, Sarah Lopez, a researcher in San Diego, was a pioneer in the study of the impact of lullabies on preemies.

2. Study uses music to explore autistic brain’s emotion processing (UCLA Today Online, 5/8/08). The Grammy Foundation Grant Program has funded a UCLA study to examine the use of music as a tool to explore the ability of children with autism to identify emotions in musical excerpts and facial expressions. The study is led by Istan Molnar-Szakacs. It is well known that music provokes engagement and interest in children with autism. They are as good or better than nondisabled children in musical memory and pitch abilities. The hypothesis of the study is that if it is able to engage the brain regions involved with emotion processing, using emotional music, this can open a doorway to each and recognize emotions and facial expressions. Neuroimaging will be used to compare brain activity in typically developing children with those having autism. Approximately 15 children, ages 10-13 will participate.
   
3. Study: Creativity Jazzes Your Brain (Neergaard, 3/10/08). The improvisation of Miles Davis and John Coltrane has triggered a bold experiment in the neuroscience of music. Six professional jazz musicians were put in an MRI that measured their brain activity while they improvised on specially made pianos. The same circuitry was used that is used in dreaming. First, inhibition switched off, then self-monitoring shut down. Then self-expression switched on. The musicians also showed increased sensory awareness in touch, hearing and sight. Creativity comes in because its root is the spontaneity that defines everyday life.