I heard there was a secret chord Music as medicine

Daniel J. Levitin

Book - 2024

"Neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin reveals how the deep connections between music and the human brain can be harnessed for healing. Music is perhaps one of humanity's oldest medicines as well as its most universal: from China to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and pre-colonial South America, cultures have developed rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, spur healing, and calm the mind. Despite this history, musical therapy has long been considered the remit of ancient practice and alternative medicine, if not outright quackery and pseudoscience. In the last decade, however, an overwhelming body of scientific evidence has emerged that pe...rsuasively argues music can offer profoundly effective treatment for a whole host of ailments, from Alzheimer's to PTSD, depression, pain, and cognitive injury. It is, in short, one of the most potent and remarkably promising new therapies available today. A work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and joyful celebration of the human mind, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord explores the critical role music has played in human evolution, illuminating how the story of the human brain is inseparable from the creative enterprise of music that has bound cultures together throughout history. Music insinuates itself into our earliest memories; it is intimately connected to our emotional regulation and cognition; its shared rhythms and sounds are essential to our social behaviors. As neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin demonstrates in this mind-expanding follow-up to This Is Your Brain on Music--which revolutionized our understanding of the neuroscience of song--medical researchers are now finding that these same deep connections can be harnessed to create profound benefits for those both young and old"--

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Subjects
Genres
Instructional and educational works
Informational works
Published
New York, NY : W.W. Norton and Company [2024]
Language
English
Main Author
Daniel J. Levitin (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
viii, 405 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 344-383) and index.
ISBN
9781324036180
  • 1. A Musical Species
  • 2. If I Only Had a Brain The Neuroanatomy of Music
  • 3. Oh, the Shark Bites Musical Memory
  • 4. Look at Me Now Attention
  • 5. Daydream Believer The Brain's "Default Mode," Introspection, and Meditation
  • Interlude
  • 6. Music, Movement, and Movement Disorders
  • 7. Parkinson's Disease
  • 8. Trauma
  • 9. Mental Health
  • 10. Memory Loss, Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, and Stroke
  • 11. Pain
  • 12. Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • 13. Learning How to Fly
  • 14. Music in Everyday Life
  • 15. Fate Knocking on Your Door Précis to a Theory of Musical Meaning
  • 16. Music Medicine, Mystery, and Possibility
  • Acknowledgments
  • Appendix: Types of Music Therapy
  • Glossary
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Playing and listening to music soothes the agitated mind, stimulates memory, and improves physical coordination, according to this exuberant treatise from neuroscientist Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music). Drawing on experiments conducted in his lab--the brain produces endogenous opioids when listening to music, his students found--and his experience as a professional guitarist and producer, Levitin delves into the burgeoning field of music therapy. Music, he writes, promotes the mind's default mode network of high neural connectivity and stimulates facets of brain function from motor control and memory to focus and emotional control. As a result, research suggests, music may diminish anxiety and depression, reduce blood pressure, improve walking and speech in Huntington's disease patients, lessen Alzheimer's symptoms, and even help to bridge seemingly uncrossable social divides (at a 2009 Esalen Institute workshop Levitin attended, Israeli and Palestinian participants wrote a song together that called for the removal of walls between the West Bank and Israel, swaying some Israeli hardliners that the wall was antithetical to peace). Enriching lucidly explained neuroscience with ebullient musical appreciation (a Billy Pierce saxophone solo is "in turns thrilling, heartbreaking, bustling, radiant, and always, always moving forward"), Levitin makes a persuasive case for music's therapeutic potential that gives due to its medical promise without undercutting its mysteries. The result is a fascinating take on the tuneful raptures of the mind. (Aug.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A leading researcher delves into the unique healing powers of music. Most people have certain pieces of music that improve their mood or make them tap their foot. Levitin, a respected neuroscientist and cognitive psychologist with a long list of academic and artistic qualifications, has been studying this phenomenon for years, using MRI and other advanced technologies to find out what is going on inside the brain. He delved into this area in his books This Is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs, and this book extends and updates his research. Listening to music activates certain areas of the brain, and the aim is to use that increased stimulation to help areas that have been damaged by illness or are malfunctioning to produce depression or other mental problems. Levitin has had significant success using music as a form of treatment, although he acknowledges that there is still much about neuroanatomy that is unknown. Using it for movement problems has been the area that has shown the most promise, and the chapter on treating Parkinson's disease is illustrative of what can be achieved. There has also been success with treating PTSD, helping sufferers reconnect with their pre-trauma identities. The author emphasizes that there are no magic bullets, and not everyone responds. Moreover, each patient has to find a piece of music--or a genre or style--that speaks to them. Nonetheless, Levitin is convincing in his argument that this area potentially offers an alternative or supplement to pharmacological methods. Informative and enjoyable, this book is for anyone interested in how the practice of medicine is expanding, and it's a must-read for fans of the author's previous books on music and the brain. Levitin's story is a fascinating piece of work, written with authority, empathy, and occasional humor. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.