Music Therapy for the Premature Brain
New research suggests music may have a place in the neonatal unit
Music has a special power over the brain. Humans across ages and cultures pick up similar experiences and emotions while listening to melodies, and even chimpanzees show musical style preferences. It’s still unknown exactly why music has such a profound impact over biology — there’s no obvious survival advantage to enjoying it. But given music’s universal appeal and influence, scientists have long wondered if it also provides benefits for brain development.
The brain of a preterm baby is at a particularly high risk of abnormal physical development and cognitive deficits that persist in later life. Some experts are concerned that babies whose late-term brain development happens in a neonatal intensive care unit (as opposed to in the womb) could be negatively impacted. Specifically, they wonder if the noise of a hospital environment could disrupt the typical patterns of connectivity between different brain areas.
Some healthcare units already use peaceful background music in the neonatal unit, though there isn’t much evidence on exactly what it means for brain activity. This gap in the literature led one group of researchers to ask whether music could provide a useful defense against some of the sensory stressors that…
