The therapeutic potential of music is not new . Now, a new study suggests that it could also be useful for treating nervous system diseases such as epilepsy. The study has been published in the journal of the American Psychological Association .
According to experts, the brains of people with epilepsy react differently to music compared to those without the disorder . To reach this conclusion, the researchers wanted to examine the effect of music on seizures or seizures, since the auditory cortex and these seizures caused by epilepsy originate in the same area of the brain: the temporal lobe.
Thus, they compared the musical processing capacities of the brains of 21 participants with and without epilepsy using an electroencephalogram , recording brain wave patterns while they listened to periods of silence and periods of musical pieces such as Mozart’s D major sonata or “My Favorite Things ” by John Coltrane.
The results revealed significantly higher levels of brain wave activity in the volunteers when they listened to music than when they were silent, but in addition, the brain wave activity in people with epilepsy tended to synchronize with the music .
“We were surprised by the results. Our hypothesis was that music would be processed in the brain differently than silence, but we did not know if this would be different for people with epilepsy. We believe that music could be used to help people with epilepsy, “explains Christine Charyton, from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (USA) and leader of the study.
