The author brings together the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how it can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.
He asserts that, of all the uses of music as medicine, none is more closely connection to biology than the treatment of movement disorders.
Music also helps us cope with trauma. Playing or listening to music, he explains, can tweak the body’s levels of serotonin and dopamine.
It also stimulates the brain’s ability to make new neurons, as well as new connections between them, “enhancing brain recovery, and normalizing the stress response.”