Date:18/01/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/01/18/stories/2004011804100800.htm

National

'Impact of music helps to understand brain-mind link'

By Our Staff Reporter

Prof. Moises Gaviria being presented the life-time achievement award and citation by the Director, Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation, V. Narayanan, in Chennai on Saturday. Seen from the left are Krishnamoorthy Srinivas, symposium chairman, E.S. Krishnamoorthy, Director of Neurosciences, Voluntary Health Services, and C.V. Karthik Narayan, Director, UCAL group. — Photo: T.A.Hafeez.

CHENNAI, JAN. 17 . The development of the brain and its interaction with the mind could be understood by studying the effect of music on humans, Moises Gaviria, Professor of Neuropsychiatry, University of Chicago, said here today.

The findings of such studies on musicians can have implications on the treatment of neurological disorders and even in teaching children, he suggested.

Music played an important role in the evolution of the human mind, and was instrumental in selection of mates, social cohesions (in group efforts such as pulling heavy objects), conflict reduction and trans-generational communication to convey useful information to future generations, he said.

Almost all parts of the brain were involved in the appreciation of music, and studies on the effect of music on humans helped understand how the brain integrated complex perception and behaviour tasks, he said, exploring the links connecting music, neurology and psychiatry.

Dr. Gaviria was delivering the 18th K.Gopalakrishna Endowment Lecture, organised by the K.Gopalakrishna Department of Neurology, Voluntary Health Services. The lecture marked the inauguration of the International Neuropsychiatry Association - India Symposium.

He said neuroscientists were starting to address questions regarding the brain and its plasticity by studying changes in the brain structures of musicians.

For instance, it was found that merely playing melodies in the mind could activate sections of the brain, he said. Certain parts of the brain were more developed in musicians who had started learning music at an early age than in others, he added.

Explaining the emotive aspect of music, he said studies had revealed that music activated the same pathways in the brain that were triggered by pleasurable activities, such as eating and sex.

The professor, who is also president of the International Neuropsychiatry Association, added that even people with dementia or Alzheimer's Disease - conditions that disconnected them from reality - were moved to tears if they heard voices of close relatives or tunes that reminded them of their past.

Answering questions later, he said that it was possible for a child to learn a language faster if he was used to listening to his mother sing in that language in his first year.

E.S.Krishnamoorthy, Director of Neurosciences, Voluntary Health Services, said modern technology could reveal more about interactions between the brain and the mind, and explain the workings of normal emotions like love, hate and anger.

V.Narayanan, Director, Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation, said advanced stem cell and neuropsychiatric methods were available to cure or control neurological ailments.