Faculty: Recent Research

Researchers Hope to Determine if Brain Mapping Holds

Answers for Improved Health

The MSU Department of Radiology has partnered with the School of Music to conduct a research project on brain mapping in hopes of determining how making and/or listening to music changes the anatomy and physiology of the brain, and if so, what this means to a person's health.

Preliminary testing began in Fall 2002 with brain scans, data collection, and result compilations. The next step is to request research funds from external sources. MSU Radiology Chairman Jim Potchen will head up the study along with Tom Cooper, assistant chair of the Radiology Department, who will be principal investigator, and Music Therapy Professor and Chair Frederick Tims.

The radiology department is using the latest state-of-the-art brain imaging equipment called fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to do the testing. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) reveals the anatomy of the brain, whereas an fMRI gives a functional image of the brain with greater resolution and clarity than previously possible, giving the researchers a better idea of precisely what is going on in the brain.

"Research has shown that music positively affects the brain, so our goal is to find out how, when, and why it affects the brain, in addition to who it affects, and under what conditions," said Tims. "Eventually we would like to apply this knowledge to promoting wellness, helping cancer patients, and various conditions of aging."

Preliminary Study Results

A preliminary study was conducted in Fall 2002 involving a professional musician and an engineer. fMRI was used to monitor the brain activity of each while a movement from a Brahms symphony was played. The results revealed significant activity in both hemispheres of the musician's brain, with slightly more activity in the right side, suggesting that music involves processing in both hemispheres of the brain. For the engineer, results revealed activity in the left hemisphere, with very little activity on the right side. This suggests that the engineer processed the music similarly to how he processes verbal stimuli, likely due to the lack of music knowledge and experience in his development.

"The results provide a better understanding of how different people respond to and appreciate different types of music," said Potchen. "We can now visualize how different brains react to the same stimulus. This will hopefully lead to a better understanding of how diverse humans respond to music."

The researchers also hope to learn how different people process information and what the implications of this are for learning and achieving well-being. Other discoveries may reveal that music making develops parts of the brain that otherwise may have never been developed.

"We would like to learn about the characteristics of people who are more responsive to music versus those who are not, and why this occurs. This, in turn, would help identify ideal candidates who would benefit most from music interventions," said Tims.

A Second Study

An extension of the preliminary study was conducted in Spring 2003, involving eighteen test subjects. Nine were musicians (MSU pianists) and the other nine had minimal experience with music. The musicians were required to be right-handed and to have had piano lessons by age 9. This takes into account the plasticity of the brain at a young age. And since the motor connections are to the opposite sides of the brain, pianists in particular were chosen because they use both hands to play, providing maximum motor stimulation to both hemispheres. Stay tuned for news of the results, which should be compiled and interpreted by 2004.

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MSU Alumnus is Using Brain Mapping and Neurological Music Therapy to Help Patients with Movement, Memory, and Speech Disorders

Michael Thaut, who earned a Ph.D. in music education and music therapy from MSU in 1983, is one of the preeminent researchers in music and brain research in the world. He has published five major brain mapping studies using PET and fMRI technology, which have investigated the functional neuroanatomy of the brain in regard to the perception and production of rhythm.

As an extension of his research, Thaut has conducted some breakthrough neurological music therapy research to help patients with movement, speech, and memory disorders at Colorado State University (CSU). He is director of the School of Fine Arts, which houses the departments of music, theater, dance and visual arts. He is also professor of music, professor of neuroscience, and heads the Center for Biomedical Research in Music at CSU.

Thaut's clinical research applies to patients diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's, Cerebral Palsy, traumatic brain injuries, and other diseases, illnesses, and impediments. Thaut and his staff developed clinical therapy techniques based on the physiology processes of the brain, of which rhythmic stimulation is one of the most important techniques.

"We know that the brain is very sensitive in processing time patterns in music. This is purely physiological and independent of any knowledge of music," said Thaut. "A good example of this is when people subconsciously start tapping their feet to a good beat."

The brain creates templates of how fast or slow the beats are. Through studies with brain- injured patients, Thaut and his staff determined that these music patterns and templates can help them. Discoveries from brain mapping and brain wave research showed that rhythm in music can serve as a timekeeper and stabilizer in the planning and timing of movement.

Thaut's studies have all been published in peer-reviewed neuroscience journals. The studies focusing on rhythm to improve walking have shown that non-rhythm control groups improved by an average of ten percent, while the rhythm groups improved by twenty-five percent -- a fifteen percent difference in improvement.

Neuroscientists and musicians joined together about ten years ago to start this type of research. Thaut's findings are being applied in many music therapy settings throughout the world and have proven to be invaluable in helping clients with neurological deficits.

"There's definitely a higher rate of improvement in patients when music and rhythm are involved in the therapy," said Thaut. "Neuralgic Music Therapy is gaining recognition quickly because the research evidence is there, and being documented and reported in journals. We know it engages the brain and makes a difference with our patients."