I came across the “Music and the Brain” podcast a few weeks ago when I was browsing the app on my phone. This episode caught my eye, so I saved it to listen to later.
I got around to listening to it yesterday. It’s an interview with Dr. Deforia Lane, Director of Music Therapy at University Hospital’s Case Medical Center. If you have a spare twenty minutes it’s worth listening to. Here’s is what I noted:
- When Dr. Lane was four, she noticed how music transformed people in her church.
- She wanted to be an opera singer but decided to study music therapy instead so she could stay close to home and also help people.
- “[M]usic has a definitive effect on blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, it can lower the muscular tension and the anxiety that we feel.”
- Yale New Haven study showed patients used 43% less self-controlled anaesthesia when they listened to their preferred music.
- “[W]e are doing more research to show that measurable differences can happen when a patient has music therapy. In some cases they are discharged sooner, in others they use less medication. In others, they’re more cooperative and more compliant and every doctor wants that from a patient. When a person’s spirits are higher they obviously heal faster, they do better.”
- Toddler Rock is a music therapy programme for at-risk preschoolers. At the time of recording, the programme was in its 11th year and had helped more than 3,000 kids use music to help their literacy development.
“I just simply learned not just the art of music but then I added to it the science of music and when those two things come together it can be magic.” – Dr. Deforia Lane
As I said, it’s well worth a listen. (Note: there seems to be an error on the website which duplicates the title of the previous podcast. That error doesn’t come up on the app.)
Louise x
