Music Therapy May Hold Promise For Treating Epilepsy

We know that listening to classical music can lower blood pressure, reduce stress levels and even boost learning. But could it also help prevent seizures in people with epilepsy?  Now that neurologists have found that the brains of people with epilepsy process music very differently than the brains of people without the condition, this may be a real possibility. The new research showed that when patients with epilepsy are listening to classical and jazz music, their brainwave patterns actually sync up with the melodies.  "Like musicians whose brains synchronize with music, persons with epilepsy synchronize to the music in the temporal lobe, where majority of seizures begin," Christine Charyton, Ph.D., a neurologist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and one of the study's authors, told The Huffington Post in an email. The temporal lobe, the area of the brain above the ears where sound is perceived, is involved in both music processing and epilepsy. Roughly 80 percent of seizures originate in this area. Individuals with epilepsy tend to show abnormalities in the temporal and frontal cortexes of the brain, as well as abnormal synchronization of brainwave activity.  For the study, the neurologists used electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to record brainwave patterns of subjects with epilepsy and those without the condition. The participants' brainwave activity was recorded during a period of silence, and also while they were listen...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news