Can music suppress seizures ?
Extract from Chapter 7 “Epilepsy in music and the theatre”
“The term music therapy refers to its application across a wide range of health conditions. The British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT) points out that, in addition to the social benefits of playing a musical instrument or being a member of a choir, music can have a direct effect upon both mental health and physical illnesses. The many conditions that they list include autism and brain injury, and there is both quantitative and qualitative research to support such claims. There are two types of music therapy: active therapy involves participation in making music, and receptive therapy involves listening to music. In the USA, the therapeutic benefits of music were first officially recognized in the 1940s. University training programmes were subsequently established, and the National Association for Music Therapy (NAMT) was formed”.
The Mozart effect is one of the most intriguing demonstrable examples of the way that music can affect brain activity. Mozart’s compositions are so highly organized, in such an architecturally symmetrical manner, that many authors have referred to the mathematical science of his works and have speculated whether the brain physically resonates with them, such that the music can influence the functional activity of brainwaves. A review of the evidence reveals that this is not as fanciful an idea as it might sound. In 1993, Frances Rauscher and her colleagues from the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin were the first to investigate the effect of listening to music on spatial reasoning, and to coin the term Mozart effect.[1] They found that college students who had listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major (K. 448) for ten minutes showed significantly better spatial reasoning skills than two control groups who had listened to either recorded relaxation advice or to silence. The mean spatial IQ scores of the students who listened to the sonata increased by 8 to 9 points, but the effect only lasted for 15 minutes. These results were quickly disputed when it became clear that other researchers could not replicate the findings. In response to this, Rauscher commented that ‘because some people cannot get bread to rise does not negate the existence of a “yeast effect.”’ Extraordinarily, the findings were supported by a study of young mice, which showed that animals which had been exposed to the sound of Mozart’s music were more successful in finding their way through a maze than animals that had been exposed to the music of the minimalist composer Philip Glass, or to white noise.
The brain areas that are used for the processing of music overlap with those involved in spatial awareness, so there is a logical basis for the view that activation of one will enhance the other. These areas have been mapped by functional brain imaging, initially by positron emission tomography (PET) and more recently by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which has shown that they lie in the temporal lobe. The auditory cortex is located in the upper part of the temporal lobe, with rhythm and pitch being processed on the right side and melody on the left side.
The most impressive evidence of a Mozart effect is seen in people with epilepsy. In a study of 29 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, it was found that after listening to the piano sonata mentioned earlier, 23 patients showed a reduction in epilepsy activity as measured by electroencephalography (EEG).[2] Moreover, additional studies by the same authors showed a reduction in the number of visible seizures. In order to ascertain whether this effect was specific to Mozart’s music or whether it applied to music in general, John Hughes and his colleagues at the University of Illinois, Chicago used computer analysis to study a wide range of composers and composition styles. They demonstrated that much of Mozart’s music as well as some of that by Bach displayed specific characteristics, although they did not put these similarities to the test in order to determine whether there was also a ‘Bach effect’ in patients.
Various theories have been proposed with regard to the mechanism whereby some music has an anticonvulsant effect, presumably by influencing the brain’s ability to generate seizure activity. Some propose that the synchronized pattern of music might decrease excitability directly, by targeting the brain area from which the epilepsy arises, whereas others suggest that it is the activation of more widespread brain regions that has a suppressant effect. Finally, dopamine, a chemical which functions as a neurotransmitter (messenger) in the brain, is thought to have a role in activating seizures, and it has been shown that exposure to music increases the levels of this chemical. Clearly, though, in view of the many different theories about the Mozart effect, further research is needed.
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[1] Rauscher FH, Shaw GL and Ky CN (1993) Music and spatial task performance. Nature 365, 611.
[2] Hughes JR, Daaboul Y, Fino JJ et al. (1998) The “Mozart effect” on epileptiform activity. Clinical Electroencephalography 29, 109–119.