Classical music might hold the key to helping people with treatment-resistant depression.
Chinese researchers have unpacked the music of composers like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart to create music therapy tailored to individual brains.
The research, reported in the Cell Press journal, used brainwave measurements and neural imaging techniques to show how classical music elicited positive effects on the brain.
“Ultimately, we hope to translate our research findings into clinical practice, developing convenient and effective music therapy tools and applications,” senior study author Professor Bomin Sun from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said.
“By collaborating with clinicians, music therapists, computer scientists, and engineers, we plan to develop a series of digital health products based on music therapy, such as smartphone applications and wearable devices,”
“These products will integrate personalised music recommendations, real-time emotional monitoring and feedback, and virtual-reality multi-sensory experiences to provide convenient and effective self-help tools for managing emotions and improving symptoms in daily life.”
Professor Sun said the goal was to find more effective ways to use music to activate the brain in people who did not otherwise respond to treatments for conditions like depression.
The study focused on 13 patients with treatment-resistant depression who already had electrodes implanted in their brains for deep-brain stimulation.
The researchers chose to experiment with classical music that most of the participants were not familiar with to ensure objectivity.
