New Grants Explore Benefits of Music on Health
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
It’s not every day you get to perform with one of the finest voices on the planet. What an honor it was to join renowned opera singer Renée Fleming back in May for a rendition of “How Can I Keep from Singing?” at the NIH’s J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture. Yet our duet was so much more. Between the song’s timeless message and Renée’s matchless soprano, the music filled me with a profound sense of joy, like being briefly lifted outside myself into a place of beauty and well-being. How does that happen?
Indeed, the benefits of music for human health and well-being have long been recognized. But biomedical science still has a quite limited understanding of music’s mechanisms of action in the brain, as well as its potential to ease symptoms of an array of disorders including Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a major step toward using rigorous science to realize music’s potential for improving human health, NIH has just awarded $20 million over five years to support the first research projects of the Sound Health initiative. Launched a couple of years ago, Sound Health is a partnership between NIH and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in association with the National Endowment for the Arts.
With support from 10 NIH institutes and centers, the Sound Health awardees will, among other things, study how music might improve the motor skills of people with Parkinson’s disease. Previous research has shown that the beat of a metronome can steady the gait of someone with Parkinson’s disease, but more research is needed to determine exactly why that happens.
Other fascinating areas to be explored by the Sound Health awardees include:
• Assessing how active music interventions, often called music therapies, affect multiple biomarkers that correlate with improvement in health status. The aim is to provide a more holistic understanding of how such interventions serve to ease cancer-related stress and possibly even improve immune function.
• Investigating the effects of music on the developing brain of infants as they learn to talk. Such work may be especially helpful for youngsters at high risk for speech and language disorders.
• Studying synchronization of musical rhythm as part of social development. This research will look at how this process is disrupted in children with autism spectrum disorder, possibly suggesting ways of developing music-based interventions to improve communication.
• Examining the memory-related impacts of repeated exposures to a certain song or musical phrase, including those “earworms” that get “stuck” in our heads. This work might tell us more about how music sometimes serves as a cue for retrieving associated memories, even in people whose memory skills are impaired by Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive disorders.
• Tracing the developmental timeline—from childhood to adulthood—of how music shapes the brain. This will include studying how musical training at different points on that timeline may influence attention span, executive function, social/emotional functioning, and language skills.
We are fortunate to live in an exceptional time of discovery in neuroscience, as well as an extraordinary era of creativity in music. These Sound Health grants represent just the beginning of what I hope will be a long and productive partnership that brings these creative fields together. I am convinced that the power of science holds tremendous promise for improving the effectiveness of music-based interventions, and expanding their reach to improve the health and well-being of people suffering from a wide variety of conditions.
Links:
The Soprano and the Scientist: A Conversation About Music and Medicine, (National Public Radio, June 2, 2017)
NIH Workshop on Music and Health, January 2017
Sound Health (NIH)
NIH Support: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health; National Eye Institute; National Institute on Aging; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; National Institute of Mental Health; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; National Institute of Nursing Research; Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research; Office of the Director
WoW. Superb.
So beautiful! So pleased Dr. Collins values and supports Music Therapy! My 15 year old granddaughter, a gifted singer, did her first internship, offering Music Therapy to physically/mentally
challenged adolescents and adults this Summer. She said she saw the magic it produced in the participants! She said it was “life changing”! She now hopes to pursue Music Therapy as a career!
Thank you Dr. Collins, please continue to support the Arts and Medicine!
Ps: I used a whole box of Kleenex on this one!
Very touching. I’m impressed with this Sound Health Initiative and amazed at the NIH for its innovative studies for better health and well being.
Amazing: both your performance and the idea and support for valuing music.. I could not live without music!
Beautiful. Music inspires and soothes the soul.
wow this inspired so much. music is life.
Amazing voice and timing of music.
Thank you for your leadership in establishing the Sound Health partnership and providing the critical multi-year resources for related research.
Nice post. Thank you. Please keep it up.
Nice post author. Thank you. Keep it up.
Nice post, author. Thank you.
I went to McGill University where the Neurology and Music departments collaborate to study how music affects the brain. They would probably love to collaborate on this research or may have some insights to share as well.
Thank you author. Keep it up.
Nice post …
Great information! There are many factors which influence our health. Music is taken as a wonderful source of peace for our mind as well as body. It provides a lot of benefits, music is a stress buster and helps to get good sleep. Thanks a lot! It would be nice if you share some more on this!
I have no idea that how music is important in our life. I have learnt many things form this post. This post really helpful to us.
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