Significant Tid-Bits about Music Therapy

Music Therapy Engages Many Brain Regions

"Music listening, performance, and composition engage nearly every area of the brain that we have so far identified, and involve nearly every neural subsystem."

"This is Your Brain," Daniel J. Levitin, Pg. 9

Brain Neurons Copy Precise Musical Frequencies

"If I put electrodes in your visual cortex (the part of the brain at the back of the head, concerned with seeing), and I then showed you a red tomato, there is no group of neurons that will cause my electrodes to turn red. But if I put electrodes in your auditory cortex and play a pure tone in your ears at 440 Hz, there are neurons in your auditory cortex that will fire at precisely that frequency, causing the electrode to emit electrical activity at 440 Hz—for pitch, what goes into the ear comes out of the brain!"

- "This is Your Brain," Daniel J. Levitin, Pg. 29

Music Therapy Shortens Hospital Stays For Patients

Dr. Mathew H.M. Lee, "We've seen confirmation of music therapy's benefits in helping to avoid serious complications during illness, enhancing patients' well-being and shortening hospital stays."

…Georgia Baptist Medical Center, found that premature babies gained weight faster and were able to use oxygen more efficiently when they listened to soothing music.

- Reader's Digest, Music's Surprising Power to Heal, by David M. Mazie

Music Therapy and Your Emotional Health

“Music sounds like feelings feel…Nuphonics™ music has the ability to change the brainwaves and the emotional content of what a person is experiencing.”—Dr. Martin Pond, Professor of Music Technology

“Exercise is the master system that tells our cells to grow instead of fade….The other master signal to our cells—equal and, in some respects, even more important than exercise—is emotion. One of the most fascinating revelations of the last decade is that emotions change our cells through he same molecular pathways as exercise.” –Dr. Henry S. Lodge, “You Can Stop “Normal” Aging”,

- Parade Magazine, March 18, 2007.

Music Therapy and Your Blood Pressure

“Listening to just 30 minutes of rhythmically homogeneous music every day combined with slow abdominal breathing may significantly reduce high blood pressure, according to the American Society of Hypertension. Study investigator Professor Pietro A. Modesti, MD, PhD reported that “Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure, but for the first time today’s results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ambulatory blood pressure. We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, and non-pharmacological treatment option or a complement therapy.”

- Newswise, May 14, 2008