The study found that some patients who were diagnosed as being in a vegetative state responded differently to music they had liked prior to their brain injury. Responses to the music included increased blink rate, faster breathing, changes in heart rate and higher levels of brain activity identified through EEG.
RHN Researcher Julian O'Kelly, who led the study which was co-funded by the RHN and Aalborg University in Denmark, explained some of the findings,
"Currently, assessments of awareness for patients with severe brain injuries tend to depend on the patient's ability to process language. Familiar tunes can elicit emotional or memory responses and so it may be that music therapy can offer an alternative, and at times more effective, means of revealing awareness, particularly if there has been damage to the part of the brain responsible for language processing. Music therapy could be another tool in the box for identifying levels of awareness."
The authors believe their findings will prompt further research to explore music therapy's potential to act as an assessment and rehabilitation tool for patients in minimally conscious and vegetative states.
The full study can be downloaded from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00884/abstract
Reference
O'Kelly J, James L, Palaniappan R, Taborin J, Fachner J and Magee WL (2013) Neurophysiological and behavioral responses to music therapy in vegetative and minimally conscious states. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7:884. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00884
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