{"id":267,"date":"2014-01-16T04:46:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T04:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/brain_blog\/?p=267"},"modified":"2015-03-05T04:14:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T04:14:52","slug":"music-and-brain-injury-proof-is-here-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/brain_blog\/2014\/01\/music-and-brain-injury-proof-is-here-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Music and Brain Injury: Proof is here again!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brain injuries have always been with us.\u00a0 Every year, thousands of brain injuries occur in the U.S. alone, but now scientists are discovering how powerful music can be\u00a0in restoring memories for the survivors of brain injury.\u00a0 Today, another study was published on some exciting findings!<\/p>\n

In the first study of its kind, two researchers have used popular music to help severely brain-injured patients recall personal memories. Amee\u00a0Baird and S\u00e9verine Samson outline the results and conclusions of their pioneering research in the recent issue of the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Although their study covered a small number of\u00a0cases, it\u2019s the very first to examine\u00a0\u2019music-evoked autobiographical memories\u2019 (MEAMs) in patients with acquired brain injuries (ABIs), rather than those who are healthy or suffer from Alzheimer\u2019s Disease.<\/p>\n

In their study, Baird and Samson played extracts from \u2018Billboard Hot 100? number-one songs in random order to five patients. The songs, taken from the whole\u00a0of the patient\u2019s lifespan from age five, were also played to five control subjects with no brain injury. All were asked to record how familiar they were with a given song, whether they liked it, and what memories it invoked.<\/p>\n

Doctors Baird and Samson found that the frequency of recorded MEAMs\u00a0was similar for patients (38%-71%) and controls (48%-71%). Only one of the four ABI patients recorded no MEAMs. In fact, the highest number of MEAMs\u00a0in the whole\u00a0group was recorded by one of the ABI patients. In all those studied, the majority of\u00a0MEAMs\u00a0were of a person, people or a life period and were typically positive. Songs that evoked a memory were noted as more familiar and more liked than those that did not.<\/p>\n

As a potential tool for helping patients regain their memories, Baird and Samson conclude that: \u201cMusic was more efficient at evoking autobiographical memories than verbal prompts of the Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) across each life period, with a higher percentage of MEAMs for each life period compared with AMI scores.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe findings suggest that music is an effective stimulus for eliciting autobiographical memories and may be\u00a0beneficial in the rehabilitation of autobiographical amnesia, but only in patients without a fundamental deficit in autobiographical recall memory and intact pitch perception.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors hope that their ground-breaking work will encourage others to carry out further studies on MEAMs in larger ABI populations. They also call for further studies of both healthy people and those with other
\nneurological conditions to learn more about the clear relationship between
\nmemory, music and emotion; they hope that one day we might truly \u201cunderstand the
\nmechanisms underlying the unique memory enhancing effect of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journal Reference<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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  1. A. Baird, S. Samson. Music evoked autobiographical memory after severe acquired brain injury: Preliminary findings from a case series<\/strong>. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation<\/em>, 2013; : 1 DOI: 10.1080\/09602011.2013.858642<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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