Many people consume and view music as simply a form of entertainment, but as renowned researchers Alex Pantelyat, MD, and Nina Kraus, PhD, explained, rhythm, song, and melody have a much deeper purpose.
“Music is so much more than just everyday background noise,” said Pantelyat. “Music can indeed be used as medicine, and I hope people young and old came away from the lecture thinking about it as something that can be used to heal, whether it’s Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, or non-neurological disorders. Music is a healthy prescription for the brain.”
Pantelyat is an assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He and Kraus, the Hugh Knowles Chair of Communication Sciences, Neurobiology, and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University, served as the Vollman & Wilson Lecturers at the second-annual Distinguished Medical Lecture titled, “Rhythmic Healing: Music & Medicine.”
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University hosted the event. Approximately 600 medical students and community members filled A-State’s Fowler Center to learn about the research Pantelyat and Kraus have done to connect music and medicine, specifically in relation to therapy.
“One of the healthiest things we can do for our brain is make music,” Kraus said. “Sound plays an incredibly important role in our lives, although sound processing is generally unrecognized. What we listen to impacts our brain and plays a role in what we become biologically.”
In addition to his role as an assistant professor, Pantelyat is the Director of the Atypical Parkinsonism Center at Johns Hopkins and the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Music & Medicine. He’s led studies through which Parkinson’s patients have participated in “rhythmic entrainment,” which involves drumming and vocal music therapy programs.
After six weeks, participants in the drumming study showed improvements in motor function and quality of life and reported a reduction in tremors that are prevalent in Parkinson’s patients. After 12 weeks, those in the vocal study displayed specific quality of life improvements such as communication and body discomfort, all attributable to singing.
“Music and rhythm-based interventions have emerging evidence of benefit in Parkinson’s disease and other diseases,” Pantelyat said.
As an audiologist, Kraus’s research largely entails how the brain receives and processes the sounds it hears. She’s worked extensively with children and spoke of how their exposure to music – or lack thereof – impacted neurological development.
Most recently, Kraus has led a study at Northwestern involving concussion in college athletes. At the beginning of the project, she separates student athletes who have had a documented concussion from those who haven’t. She then plays music for the students and studies how the brain response is different in those who have suffered a concussion versus those who haven’t.
“Because making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs we ask our brains to do, it is a measure of brain health,” Kraus said. “That’s why when you get hit in the head and sustain a concussion, you can see that sound processing biologically becomes disrupted and can be used as an index of when an athlete might be ready to return to play, return to learn, and it can give you feedback for treatment options and help in the diagnostic process in the first place.”
Among those in attendance were Jonesboro residents Clem and Vivian Wixted. Two years ago, Vivian was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and has since participated in music therapy programs.
“We’ve seen some of the practical benefits of the therapy, but tonight we got to hear about the science behind what we’ve experienced,” Clem Wixted said. “It was really encouraging to know that there’s evidence that shows why the therapy works, and it lifts our spirits to know there’s some incredible research being done to help people like us who are fighting.”