Music and the Mind: Music's Healing Powers

Abstract

Music makes you smarter: or at least that is what the "experts" are saying. CDs are sold of Mozart's Sonatas for babies, and parents are urged to give their children music lessons in the belief that music does something to our brains which in turn makes us more intelligent. But is this really true? Does music really affect the brain in the powerful way that scientists are suggesting, or is it hearsay? In this paper I investigate the effects of music on our brain's plasticity and cognition by looking at several different experimental studies. Specifically I will address how music affects brain plasticity, emotion, physical health and linguistic processing, and how these effects in turn make music a beneficial tool for therapy, particularly in patients with Traumatic-Brain Injury (TBI) and Autism-Spectrum Disorder.

Keywords

• Music
• mind
• healing
• brain
• powers