The music never stopped, o filme

Cerca de um ano e meio após ter descoberto "The music never stopped" - sobre o qual fiz um post aqui - finalmente tive a oportunidade de ver o filme. Aproveito para fazer uma breve descrição em português, já que no outro post escrevi em inglês.

Baseado num caso real estudado por Dr. Oliver Sacks (retratado no seu livro "The last Hippie"), o filme retrata a história de Gabriel Sawyer, um músico que perde a capacidade de guardar novas memórias devido a um tumor cerebral. 

O pai de Gabriel esforça-se por lutar contra o tumor cerebral do filho, o que o leva a procurar uma musicoterapeuta com o objectivo de utilizar a música como elemento conector entre o filho e a realidade. A profissional de musicoterapia descobre que a música rock que Gabriel escutava na sua juventude o ajuda a  recuperar algumas das capacidades cognitivas que os médicos consideraram irreversivelmente perdidas.

Apesar da distância física e emocional entre pai e filho nos últimos 20 anos, a dedicação do pai permite fortalecer a relação outrora esquecida, renunciando à suas próprias crenças para abraçar as peculiaridades e divergências do filho.

Saliento o ênfase que o filme deposita na musicoterapia, abordando especificamente a importância da música numa situação neurológica delicada. No caso do Gabriel (o qual recordo que apresenta uma base verídica), a música permitiu a estimulação de circuitos cerebrais, a recuperação de memórias e a reaprendizagem de funções cognitivas que, de outro modo, teriam sido negligenciadas, esquecidas, abandonadas.  Imperdível.

Art by Matisse

"Effeitos da musica sobre as molestias" in "A Mãi de Familia" (Janeiro de 1882)

"Effeitos da musica sobre as molestias"

Pág.4-5, A Mãi de Familia (jornal scientifico, litterario e illustrado), 4 anno, nº1

Janeiro de 1882, Rio de Janeiro

Imagens em tamanho maior aqui (o conteúdo consta nas páginas 4 e 5 da publicação)

How music triggers the same reward systems that drive our desires for food and sex

The profound connection between music and the brain has long fascinated scientists and philosophers alike, and has even shaped the course of our evolution. The wonderful duo Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown, better known as AsapSCIENCE, breaks down music’s ability to create a state of arousal by inducing the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which also regulates the neurochemistry of love, and offsetting a reward circuit similar to the one drugs exploit — something I can certainly attest to as a hopeless music addict.

Info from Brain Pickings 

Music relieves stress of assisted breathing

Patients who need assistance to breathe through mechanical ventilation may benefit from listening to music, a new review published in The Cochrane Library shows. The researchers found that music listening may relax patients, potentially resulting in fewer complications. 

Mechanical ventilation often causes major distress and anxiety in patients. The sensation of breathlessness, frequent suctioning, inability to talk, uncertainty regarding surroundings or condition, discomfort, isolation from others, and fear all contribute to high levels of anxiety. Medications administered to reduce anxiety may lead to increased hospital stays and medical costs. 

"With all these factors making mechanical ventilation a highly stressful experience, it is exciting that music may provide a way to reduce anxiety in these patients without costly side effects," said lead researcher Joke Bradt of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University in Philadelphia and former researcher at Temple University's Arts and Quality of Life Research Center. 

The researchers reviewed data from eight trials involving 213 patients in total. Patients, who had various conditions, including lung disease, cardiac disease and trauma injuries, all received mechanical breathing support via mouth, nose, or tracheotomy (artificial opening in the neck). 

In seven trials, patients listened to pre-recorded music and in the remaining trial a trained music therapist provided live music with a tempo matched to the respiratory rate of the patient. On average, listening to music reduced anxiety compared to standard care. It also reduced heart and breathing rates, although not blood pressure. 

"These results look promising, but we need more trials to strengthen the evidence and we would certainly be interested in seeing more research on live music interventions provided by trained music therapists," said Bradt. "However, because music listening is an easy treatment to provide, we do recommend that music be offered as a form of stress management for critically ill patients." 

Little information was available about the specific kinds of music that produced beneficial effects. "Except for mentioning general styles, such as classical and easy listening, most of the trials made no mention of the music selections used," said Bradt. "In future trials, recording more detailed information about the music would help clinicians make better informed decisions about music selections. We recommend that medical personnel providing music to patients consult with a music therapist to understand what type of music may be best for a particular patient. Likewise, music therapists need to collaborate with medical personnel to carefully monitor the patients' physiological responses to the music."

Info at Phys.Org

Surgery with Music Benefits

Surgeons believe playing a little knife music might benefit patients so much that they recover sooner from their operations.

Mozart was not actually one of the composers that those in the study got to hear. However, they were offered equally soothing pieces by Beethoven, Vivaldi and Bach.

Frank Sinatra was also on hand for those who preferred some easy listening during the operations, which included washing out major wounds.

Hazim Sadideen, the plastic surgeon who led the project at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, said: "Undergoing surgery can be a stressful experience for patients and finding ways of making them more comfortable should be our goal as clinicians.

"There are also good medical reasons – calmer patients may cope better with pain and recover quicker.

"This small scale work is the first time an attempt has been made to measure the impact music has in this specific group of patients and hints at the need for bigger multi-centre research to establish whether this should become part of standard practice."

In the study, published in the journal Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons, 96 patients undergoing minor surgery were randomly assigned either music or silence. All were awake during their procedures, which included routine removal of skin lesions and cleansing of upper limb wounds after accidents.

The half played music reported lower anxiety levels and lower breathing rates than the others.

From Telegraph.co.uk

Babies' Brains Benefit from Music Lessons, Even Before They Can Walk and Talk

After completing the first study of its kind, researchers at McMaster University have discovered that very early musical training benefits children even before they can walk or talk. 

They found that one-year-old babies who participate in interactive music classes with their parents smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music. 

The findings were published recently in the scientific journalsDevelopmental Science and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 

"Many past studies of musical training have focused on older children," says Laurel Trainor, director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. "Our results suggest that the infant brain might be particularly plastic with regard to musical exposure." 

Trainor, together with David Gerry, a music educator and graduate student, received an award from the Grammy Foundation in 2008 to study the effects of musical training in infancy. In the recent study, groups of babies and their parents spent six months participating in one of two types of weekly music instruction. 

One music class involved interactive music-making and learning a small set of lullabies, nursery rhymes and songs with actions. Parents and infants worked together to learn to play percussion instruments, take turns and sing specific songs. 

In the other music class, infants and parents played at various toy stations while recordings from the popular "Baby Einstein" series played in the background. 

Before the classes began, all the babies had shown similar communication and social development and none had previously participated in other baby music classes. 

"Babies who participated in the interactive music classes with their parents showed earlier sensitivity to the pitch structure in music," says Trainor. "Specifically, they preferred to listen to a version of a piano piece that stayed in key, versus a version that included out-of-key notes. Infants who participated in the passive listening classes did not show the same preferences. Even their brains responded to music differently. Infants from the interactive music classes showed larger and/or earlier brain responses to musical tones." 

The non-musical differences between the two groups of babies were even more surprising, say researchers. 

Babies from the interactive classes showed better early communication skills, like pointing at objects that are out of reach, or waving goodbye. Socially, these babies also smiled more, were easier to soothe, and showed less distress when things were unfamiliar or didn't go their way. 

While both class types included listening to music and all the infants heard a similar amount of music at home, a big difference between the classes was the interactive exposure to music. 

"There are many ways that parents can connect with their babies," says study coordinator Andrea Unrau. "The great thing about music is, everyone loves it and everyone can learn simple interactive musical games together." 

Info from Science Daily