The science behind Music Therapy
"Clear evidence of music’s effects on core mental health variables"
Efforts to integrate music into healthcare systems and wellness practices are accelerating but the biological foundations supporting these initiatives remain underappreciated. As a result, music-based interventions are often sidelined in medicine.
In the Journal, Translational Psychiatry of December 3, 2023, Daniel L Bowling in Article #374 titled "Biological principles for music and mental health" brought together information on the advances in music research from neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry to music’s specific foundations in human biology with its specific therapeutic applications.
Bowling proposes a framework that organizes the neurophysiological effects of music around four core elements of human musicality: tonality, rhythm, reward, and sociality. Within his framework, he outlined a strategy to increase music’s impact on health based by standardizing treatments and their alignment with individual differences in responsivity to these musical elements.
"Bowling proposes a framework that organizes the neurophysiological effects of music around four core elements of human musicality: tonality, rhythm, reward, and sociality. "
Bowling describes integrated biological understanding of human musicality—each element’s functional origins, development, phylogeny (behaviours or traits inherited through evolutionary history, rather than learned), and neural bases—and how it is critical to advancing rational applications of music in mental health and wellness.
While skepticism is justified, clear evidence of music’s effects on core mental health variables is readily apparent in our growing understanding of music’s biological foundations. Critically, these foundations provide a rational basis for standardizing and expanding music’s psychiatric applications and benefits.
"While skepticism is justified, clear evidence of music’s effects on core mental health variables is readily apparent."
Bowling, D.L. Biological principles for music and mental health. Transl Psychiatry 13, 374 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-023-02671-4
Access the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-023-02671-4#citeas