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In recognition of Mental Health Month, Pick of the Week brings you Music and the Brain,. a thought-provoking, two-year cycle of lectures and special presentations at the Library of Congress that highlighted an explosion of new research on music and the brain. Under the auspices of the Music Division and the Science, Technology and Business Division, clinical psychologist and writer Kay Redfield Jamison convened scientists, scholars, composers, performers, theorists, physicians, and psychologists to discuss these exciting advances. We hope you enjoy!
“Music and the Brain” was presented by the Music Division and the Science, Technology and Business Division, Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Clinic, and with the generous support of the Dana Foundation.
Concetta M. Tomaino, Executive Director, Institute for Music and Neurologic Function
Why can someone with Alzheimer's disease recall lyrics to songs when they can't remember the names of their children? Why can a stroke survivor sing words to a familiar song even though they cannot speak? Drawing from more than 30 years of clinical experience and current research into the therapeutic applications of music for persons with acute or chronic health conditions, Concetta Tomaino will explain how and why music is an effective tool to enhance neurologic function, ability and quality of life.
Series advisor Kay Redfield Jamison returns with a new presentation based on her forthcoming book, Nothing Was the Same, a haunting meditation on mortality, grief and loss. She is joined by two other distinguished speakers: Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of the Juilliard School, and J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr., MD, Director, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The panelists will delve into the distinctions between grief and depression, the consolations of music and literature, and crosscurrents related to arts and the brain.
David Huron, author of Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation (2006), and Head, Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory, Ohio State University.
Music-induced weeping represents one of the most powerful and potentially sublime experiences available to human listeners. Modern neuroscience provides helpful insights into music-induced weeping, how sounds can evoke sadness or grief, and why such sounds might lead to "a good cry."
In recognition of Mental Health Month, Pick of the Weekend brings you Music and the Brain II, a thought-provoking, two-year cycle of lectures and special presentations at the Library of Congress that highlighted an explosion of new research on music and the brain. Under the auspices of the Music Division and the Science, Technology and Business Division, clinical psychologist and writer Kay Redfield Jamison convened scientists, scholars, composers, performers, theorists, physicians, and psychologists to discuss these exciting advances. We hope you enjoy!
“Music and the Brain” was presented by the Music Division and the Science, Technology and Business Division, Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Clinic, and with the generous support of the Dana Foundation.
Dr. Gottfried Schlaug is chief of the Division of Cerebrovascular Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.
Making music is an intense, multi-sensory and motor experience that is typically initiated at an early age and practiced throughout a musician's lifetime. Emerging research over the years has shown that long-term music making and continuous practice of learned skills can be a strong stimulator for neuroplastic changes in the developing, as well as the adult brain and has positive effects on motion, emotion and cognition. This suggests that music-making engages, links and changes brain regions and may provide an alternative entry point that could be useful for remediating impaired neural processes.
