What music is in your head? Luigy Cordova Burgos Professor Hairston CM 115.05 November , 2015 [Type text] [Type text] Cordova 1 Throughout history, music has been an important factor to express the emotions of several cultures in different periods of time. Everyday, we unconsciously used music as a cornerstone for learning when we were kids or to cheer up from a bad day. Music plays an important rol over our bodies. This is why, in today’s society, the use of melody and harmony is greatly utilized in the health care profession as a therapeutic solution. This type of rehabilitation offers healing influence has helped to improve overall health and behavior. Therefore, music therapy should be a nationwide practice for patients with mental illness and physical rehabilitation because of its reliability and safety. How the humanity has perceived music has changed over generations. Before the invention of writing, music helped individuals to remember stories of their ancestors. For example, the Torah was sung before it was written down in paper. Chinese medical belief says that the five internal organs and systems have musical tones. The first traces of music as a therapy relates us back to the 20th century by the end of the World Wars. Thousands of veterans, who had suffered physical and mental trauma, have been placed in hospitals for treatment. Musicians were hired from the doctors since their performances improved the responses of the patients. Today, there are over 5000 therapists that design music sessions according to the patient’s preferences or circumstances using different strategies such as: lyric discussion, song writing, receptive music listening and more. The most common examples where this field is commonly active are in psychiatric facilities, where it can allow persons to explore personal feelings and moods; or nursing homes, in which helps to increase brain activity and stabilize emotional patients. Uniqueness defines this type of therapy since all styles of music can be useful throughout different methods. There are five common procedures used nowadays, most of them are what the [Type text] [Type text] Cordova 4 name implies. Every method has a different goal, nonetheless, they correlate to each other. Songwriting, for example, is helpful to express emotions or moods through simple song lyrics created by the patient. Lyric analysis helps to identify the patient with words or phrases within the song; this technique is efficient to analyze his or her life. Listening involves more physical activity as the patient can draw, move, relax or meditate; all the following relates to an emotional aspect. By improvising music with any musical or non-musical medium the patient is evaluated since the individual is expressing; therefore, the emotions a behaviors are related. Finally, if the patient plays an instrument it develops his or her commination and coordination skills. The common denominator about all treatments is in how they influence brain activity. A harmony or melody has the power to trigger an emotional reaction. If you have listened to the “Pomp and Circumstance Marches” you will most likely remember your graduation ceremony. A study made by Valori Salimpoor from Toronto proved that our brain reach as a music recommendation system. The nucleus accumbens is part of the hypothalamus that creates a reward sensation. The activity of the nucleus accumbens generates other parts of the brains, such as the temporal gyrus and the stratium to react. The gyrus collects the information and stores it for recognition while the stratium releases dopamine. The act together is what allows the listener to enjoy a piece of music more than other. In fact, after hearing a piece of music can impact how we perceive the world (cnn) Our musical preferences can be linked with our personality traits. We all like different kind of music; it may be classical, pop, electronic or even heavy metal. To start a therapy, the patient has to identify what he considers pleasant in order to develop any activity at first. According to a study at Heriot-Watt University, different genres correspond certain traits such as emotional stability, extraversion, agreeableness and more. For instance, someone who listens [Type text] [Type text] Cordova 1 dance would have great creativity but it would lack of gentleness. Therapists are aware of the rhythm, tempo, melody and texture of the music for different treatments. Its utility has been useful in other areas rather than hospitals. Schools, for example, utilize this method to improve learning of special kids. Hospitals consider music as a pain relief in addition to anesthesia. It also can help to improve the patient’s mood and stimulates physical rehabilitation. Biofeedback is one method of know how effective their therapies are where they use real time data of the responses of their patients. This includes: heart rate, skin conductivity, and heart variance. Eric Miller, a therapist in Pennsylvania, is one of many using this method that allows him to know what effect music has on the human body. Also, he used this to translate those readings into actual tones for his music. This helps the therapist to know is they need to relax or not. Currently, music therapy is scientifically proven to be a huge success in different physical and psychological conditions. In adults, the lack of sleep or insomnia is a common issue that can lead to lack of energy to perform everyday activities. Chomical cases derive to brain complications and anxiety. The results of therapy show better efficiency to conciliate sleep and fewer disturbances. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the principal forms of dementia or the degeneration of cognitive functions. The benefits of the therapy are better behavior and cooperation of daily tasks involving decision-making; overall, it improves mood. This scenario is similar to patients with depression problems; the difference is all the physical changes involved. Patients get reduction of heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure. Autism causes patients to socially dissociate themselves because they have issues with repetitive behaviors. Therapy has helped them in the aid of verbal and non-verbal communication. The development of a child is important nowadays. They offer a huge range of benefits in order to complete their development. Listening music in late pregnancy will make the child [Type text] [Type text] Cordova 4 recognize music more easily. Also, they tend to have increased feeding rates, more tolerance of stimulation, reduced heart rated and deeper sleep. Susan Hallam, an educational institution located in London, has shown different studies and its impact on these little human beings. The main purpose was to analyze their personal a social development based on creative, cognitive and language skills. Active engagement with music enhances the process of reading since there is an impact in the part of the brain called Wernicke’s area, which is associated with the breakdown of word input. With eight weeks of treatment, linguistic sounds are improved. Speech is an easier process to develop since the patients identify rhythmic patterns quicker. In this case, the child expanded their verbal input 17% more than those who didn’t. This type of treatment is also a huge boost for creativity and rationale. A review of fifteen cases was made and there is a clear correlation between music and Intelligence Quotient (IQ). On average, from every 12 students into the treatment, 10 would increase their IQ. On standards tests, they would obtain 80 more points than their classmates. As expected, participation stimulated improvisation and enhanced measured creativity due to more abstract processing. It was remarkable that this is not the only way to enhance this aspect. One of the analyzed studies, showed a large quantity of patients that had developed this trait prior to the therapy. As the patients got involved with music, their emotional intelligence was more distinguishable. Therefore, they felt a sense of achievement; increase their confidence and trust. This leads the individual to express his or her feelings in a more concrete fashion. Over time this process helps children going into puberty to develop their identities and it may avoid depressive episodes. All of the effects mentioned are going to be successful, it the individual actually enjoys the experience. Demi Bullock suffered from a posttraumatic condition due to her experience in the Marine. She was prescribed with music therapy; nonetheless, passed through an unpleasant [Type text] [Type text] Cordova 1 experience involving music since she was 15 years old. As a result, she could not feel at ease with the first group sessions and further help was needed. In these cases “it takes time and “soulsearching” for music to become a beneficial part of recovery” (Rebecca Vaudreuil, Cnn). After one year, Bullock started a different type of treatment since she tried to commit suicide. She was assigned to play instruments and the results were better this time. She could canalize her stress through the drum or guitar while giving her a way self-identity. On the other hands, there are cases were music is all about sharing fun or that is Brian Jantz says. Since he works with children at Boston Children’s Hospital, he has to deal with the anxiety of his patients. The best way to approach a new patient is to encourage them to learn something new while distracting them from the actual procedures. Safety is important in this procedure. If an untrained individual attempts these procedures, the symptoms of the patient may get worse. A common misconception about this therapy is that any kind of music is beneficial to the patient. On a first though, they would consider to put classical music. Yes, classical music has it benefits, but they are exclusive to certain range of people. In this case, stroke patients use music therapy to interact with their visual attention. A correct procedure can be beneficial to help other treatments such as the ones used in cancer. Three different studies in the United States and England by 2000, showed that the cancer patients with music therapy developed less anxiety, less stress, less pain and improvements in immune function Music offers so much more than plain entertainment. It offers a huge variety of benefits like any other treatment. We even are affected by music without noticing it. The elements of music can affect our emotional core to the point we can improve our skills. As a practice it [Type text] [Type text] Cordova 4 should be more popular, especially among children. Since it does not involve any type of drugs it is considered a safer practice with long-term results. References cited http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/health/music-therapy/ http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/health/brain-music-research http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/26/health/mental-health/music-brain-science https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/natural-standard/201306/music-therapy-healthand-wellness http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/21/can-music-tame-your-inner-beastmusic-therapy-for-mental-health/ http://www.musictherapy.org/faq/ http://www.laphil.com/sites/default/files/media/pdfs/shared/education/yola/susan-hallammusic-development_research.pdf https://blog.bufferapp.com/music-and-the-brain http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml http://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain http://anoteonthetype.net/assets/mannes.text.pdf http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/comp_med/types/music
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