Aside from its obvious pleasing effect and through entertainment, music can have many more benefits. According to researchers, a music therapy session can synchronise the brain of patients and therapists, which helps improve future interactions between the two.
Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, this is the first music therapy study to use a procedure called hyperscanning, which records activity in two brains at the same time, allowing researchers to better understand how people interact.
“Music therapists report experiencing emotional changes and connections during therapy, and we’ve been able to confirm this using data from the brain,” said study lead author Jorg Fachner, Professor at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK.
During the session documented in the study, classical music was played as the patient discussed a serious illness in her family. Both patient and therapist wore EEG (electroencephalogram) caps containing sensors, which capture electrical signals in the brain and the session was recorded in sync with the EEG using video cameras.
The researchers examined activity in the brain’s right and left frontal lobes where negative and positive emotions are processed, respectively.
By analysing hyperscanning data alongside video footage and a transcript of the session, the researchers were able to demonstrate that brain synchronisation occurs, and also show what a patient-therapist “moment of change” looks like inside the brain.
“Hyperscanning can show the tiny, otherwise imperceptible changes that take place during therapy. By highlighting the precise points where sessions have worked best, it could be particularly useful when treating patients for whom verbal communication is challenging,” he added.
