Music in the Treatment of Affective Disorders: An Exploratory Investigation of a New Method for Music-Therapeutic Research

Abstract

MUSIC LISTENING AND MAKING ACTIVATES A multitude of brain structures, the engagement of which is likely to have beneficial effects on the psychological and physiological health of individuals. We first briefly review functional neuroimaging experiments on music and emotion, showing that music-evoked emotions can change activity in virtually all core areas of emotional processing.We then enumerate social functions that are automatically and effortlessly engaged when humans make music. Engagement in these social functions fulfils basic human needs, is part of what makes us human, and is an important source for pleasure and happiness. Finally, we present a new method for music therapy, including an exploratory empirical study on effects of music making. Results show that the music making increased the mood of individuals compared to a control group. This music therapy method is promising in encouraging further development for the treatment of affective disorders, and can be used in both single- and double-blinded studies for empirical, evidence-based medical research.

Towards a neural basis of processing musical semantics

“…In addition, humans are unique in that they can understand other individuals as intentional agents, share their intentionality, and act jointly to achieve a shared goal. In this regard, communicating and understanding intentions, and as well inter-individual coordination of movements is a pre-requisite for cooperation (for a summary of social functions engaged by music see also Koelsch et al [39]). Ian Cross [7] stated that, in a social context, musical meaning can emerge from such joint performative actions; Cross referred to this dimension as socio-intentional [7, p. 6].…”

Reviewing the Effectiveness of Music Interventions in Treating Depression

“…The remaining were: Hsu and Lai, 2004; Chang et al, 2008; Harmat et al, 2008; Chan et al, 2009, 2010; Guétin et al, 2009a; Koelsch et al, 2010; Verrusio et al, 2014.…”

Metaphor and music emotion: Ancient views and future directions

“…The theorisation of -and attribution of emotion to -a fictional agent would facilitate the interpretation of the emotional quality expressed in the music, as music's complex and dynamically evolving structure over time would be perceived as reflecting and dramatising human multifaceted and mutable emotional states, and their development within the narrative trajectory of a psychological journey. Hence, although some have argued that engaging with music may have had some evolutionary significance, for example by promoting the evolution of language (Wallin, Merker, & Brown, 2000), cooperation, and social cohesion (Cross & Morley, 2008;Koelsch, Offermanns, & Franzke, 2010), the overall evidence in support of the view that music can directly induce emotion in the listener is considered 'recent and unconvincing' (Konečni, 2008, p. 115). The richness and subtlety of music-related emotions, as well as their hypothesised attribution to fictive intermediaries, suggest that the mechanisms through which they arise is indirect, and includes a complex combination of perceptual and cognitive aspects.…”