Sunday, April 19, 2009

Composing Concertos in the Key of Rx


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/arts/music/29gure.html


for some reason this link says you have to be a member to read the article, however if you google the title of the article you can read it on the New York Times website. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, I'm not quite sure why it wont let you read the article...

10 comments:

  1. What about the relationship between music and memory? For some reason, we often find things to be easier to remember when we receive them in the form of a tune (such as the ABCs). And music that we've associated with an important event or time in our lives can bring those memories flooding back with as little as a chance exposure, just as a smell can. Why does music seem to have this special affect on our ability to remember?

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  2. Have there been studies which have combined brain imaging with music? What parts of the brain are activated? Are different areas of the brain activated for different types of music (singing vs string instruments vs drums, etc.)?

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  4. I wonder if this is connected to the movement in Munich, Germany, in which classical music was played from loudspeakers in subway stations? The music playing correlated with a decrease in crime. In addition, I wonder what is the significance of listening to music that the patient does not previously know. Are the doctors avoiding emotional connection, memory, or both (because they are enmeshed)? Would memories pose as a distraction from the treatment?

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  5. This article focused on therapeutic potential of music but I wonder about the manipulative potential of music. Is there any intention to influence or stimulate emotion behind the music we hear when we're on hold on the phone, or the music played in department stores, or the music used to score a film?

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  6. This article seemed a little bit vague. I would be interested in seeing more detailed scientific information about the measurable effects of specific types of music, and theories as to why these specific types of music provoked this result.

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  7. Through all that we have studied, music seems to play a balancing affect. It seems to add something to the normal cycle of hormonal processing, thus contributing to the normal cycle of informational processing. Essentially, it seems to contribute to emotional homeostasis, or at least it seems to promote homeostatic functioning in the hectic processes that creates the hormone axis.

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  8. I wonder if there are any differences in the brain functioning of people who listen to music daily versus people who rarely listen to music. Perhaps there could even be differences in the mental health of people who listen to music versus people who do not. I believe that music has healing effects, but I think Brandes' study should take subjective taste into account. What is calming music for one, can be hell for another. How could these differences be taken into account?

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  9. I find it very interesting that certain medicines (such as the beta blocker used in hypertension) can only suppress symptoms, while the music can "address the psychosomatic root causes."

    It seems to me that would be the strongest argument against musical pharmocology-- that it is just temporarily relieving symptoms. However, I suppose if calming music releases tension, whereas a medicine merely blocks receptors of tension, the problem is still there, its just being numbed. It's so interesting how counter intuitive this all seems because of the intangibility of music.

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  10. This reminds me of the theory of superlearning. It is similar to the Mozart makes you smart concept, but requires that one listens to a specific type of classical music in a specific meter and tempo. Reading while listening to these specific songs is thought to be absorbed and retained better, thus superlearned. I used to work for a shaman who swore by it as a natural ADD medicine.
    If these musics can help people develop healthier rhythms and routines with more positive body reactions, then why not try it in every hospital.

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