Neuroscientist David Levitin explores how music can help heal us in his new book
Natalie Foss
Most of us know that music can have a profound effect on the mind and body. Consider the feeling of empowerment when you put on some headphones and go for a run, the surge of nostalgia that comes from hearing your favorite childhood song, or the joy of singing along in the car: music moves us, literally and figuratively. It can make us happy when we are sad, sad when we are happy, even dance, laugh and relax.
But what if it could do more than that, what if music really had the power to heal us? In his new book I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music as Medicineneuroscientist Daniel Levitin explains why he thinks so.
The idea that music is medicine is not new – there is evidence that shamans and healers in cultures around the world have used music, especially drumming, to treat people for thousands of years.
Only in recent decades, however, has science provided a rational basis for music as a healing mechanism, demonstrating that it has a direct and measurable effect on our nervous system.
Advances in neuroimaging in music theory, along with more rigorous experimentation based on cognitive psychology and physiology, suggest that music may be useful for everything from Parkinson’s disease to Alzheimer’s and depression.
I spoke The New Scientist about these health benefits and how music can be added to our medical toolkit.
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