Every bit COVID-nineteen spread insidiously around the globe this spring, people sought solace in music.

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Every bit COVID-19 spread insidiously effectually the world this bound, people sought solace in music. They sang from their balconies, performed virtual fundraising concerts, and created both silly and serious tunes nigh paw washing, physical distancing, and other aspects of pandemic life.

That so many people have used music as a fashion to connect, panel, and lift spirits during these unsettling times comes as no surprise to David Silbersweig, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and the Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical Schoolhouse, and Nikki Haddad, an incoming BWH psychiatry resident who earned her Medico this May from Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School.

"We're all dealing with this very stressful and traumatizing situation, and music is universally accepted as something helpful during these periods," says Haddad.

top view image of the brain with colorful swirls of music notes coming out.

Silbersweig and Haddad are both musicians (he plays trombone, drums, and guitar, and she sings and plays guitar) with longstanding interests in how music excites the brain—and how information technology tin can be used to amend health. Among other projects, they are collaborating with faculty at Boston'due south Berklee Music and Wellness Institute to study the role of music in supporting critical care providers on the forepart lines of COVID-19.

In his BWH lab, Silbersweig, a neurologist and psychiatrist who co-directs the Neurosciences Heart at BWH, uses imaging engineering science to peer (noninvasively) inside individuals' brains and detect how their neural circuits burn down in real fourth dimension. His patients include stroke and tumor survivors who take developed music-related weather condition from harm to their brain tissue. For example, patients with sensory amusia lose the ability to perceive or reply to music, and those with musical hallucinosis perceive music even when in that location is none playing. This piece of work offers insights into how our brains process music and rhythms.

Nosotros're all dealing with this very stressful and traumatizing situation, and music is universally accepted equally something helpful during these periods.

Activating the Brain

The process by which we're able to perceive a series of sounds as music is incredibly circuitous, Silbersweig and BWH psychiatry colleague Samata Sharma, MD, explained in a 2018 paper on the neurobiological furnishings of music on the brain. Information technology starts with audio waves entering the ear, striking the eardrum, and causing vibrations that are converted into electric signals. These signals travel by sensory nerves to the brainstem, the brain'south message relay station for auditory data. Then they disperse to activate auditory (hearing) cortices and many other parts of the brain. Information technology is noteworthy that different parts of the brain are activated, depending on the blazon of music—for example, melodic versus anomalous—and whether we are listening, playing, learning, or composing music (see related box).

Music can alter brain structure and function, both later immediate and repeated exposure, according to Silbersweig. For case, musical training over time has been shown to increase the connectivity of sure encephalon regions. "If yous play an instrument like the violin," he said in a contempo Zoom interview, "the areas in your brain that are associated with the frequencies of the violin are more stimulated and the synaptic connections are richer."

Healing Power of Music

These changes in encephalon circuitry and connectivity suggest opportunities to activate sure regions to promote healing, Silbersweig says. He and Haddad expect frontward to using cutting-border brain research to build on what's already known well-nigh the therapeutic power of music for patients with dementia, low, and other neurological conditions. The pair note, for example, that playing a march or other rhythmic piece for people with Parkinson'south disease stimulates the encephalon circuits that get them physically moving. Similarly, people with short-term memory loss from Alzheimer's disease frequently recognize familiar songs similar "Happy Birthday" considering "that memory's encoded into their brain'southward long-term retentivity," Haddad notes.

Haddad witnessed this response during loftier school and college while performing for patients in hospitals and assisted living facilities. "You take these patients who are essentially sedated, lying down, optics airtight, not able to communicate," she recalls. "And when you play a song that they recognize from their youth, their eyes light up. They're sitting up, and they're smiling. It's just incredible."

Brain Areas: Working in Concert

Nosotros may non realize it when listening to a favorite melody, but music activates many different parts of the brain, co-ordinate to Harvard Medical School neurologist and psychiatrist David Silbersweig, MD. These include:

  • The temporal lobe, including specific temporal gyri (bulges on the side of the encephalon's wrinkled surface) that help process tone and pitch.
  • The cerebellum, which helps process and regulate rhythm, timing, and concrete movement.
  • The amygdala and hippocampus, which play a role in emotions and memories.
  • Various parts of the encephalon's reward system.

"All of these areas," Silbersweig noted in a 2018 newspaper, "must work in concert to integrate the various layers of sound beyond infinite and time for united states to perceive a series of sounds as a musical composition."

Debra Bradley Ruder is a freelance medical writer based in Greater Boston.

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