Affiliations: [a] Senior Research Fellow, Music Cognition Laboratory, Department of Clinical Psychology NIMHANS, India
| [b] Clinical Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Center and Music Cognition Laboratory, Department of Clinical Psychology NIMHANS, India
| [c] Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory, University of Toronto, Canada
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Shantala Hegde, Associate Professor of Neuropsychology, Faculty-in-Charge: Music Cognition Laboratory, Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, KA, India. Tel.: +91 80 26995183/5180; Emails: [email protected]/[email protected]
Abstract: BACKGROUND:The plastic nature of the human brain lends itself to experience and training-based structural changes leading to functional recovery. Music, with its multimodal activation of the brain, serves as a useful model for neurorehabilitation through neuroplastic changes in dysfunctional or impaired networks. Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) contributes to the field of neurorehabilitation using this rationale. OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this article is to present a discourse on the concept of neuroplasticity and music-based neuroplasticity through the techniques of NMT in the domain of neurological rehabilitation. METHODS:The article draws on observations and findings made by researchers in the areas of neuroplasticity, music-based neuroplastic changes, NMT in neurological disorders and the implication of further research in this field. RESULTS:A commentary on previous research reveal that interventions based on the NMT paradigm have been successfully used to train neural networks using music-based tasks and paradigms which have been explained to have cross-modal effects on sensorimotor, language and cognitive and affective functions. CONCLUSIONS:Multimodal gains using music-based interventions highlight the brain plasticity inducing function of music. Individual differences do play a predictive role in neurological gains associated with such interventions. This area deserves further exploration and application-based studies.
