Music and TBI recovery
I love singing along to songs that I love alongside a crowd that loves them too.
One of the cognitive techniques I use to remember new things is association.
For example, if I’m looking at a picture of a bowl of ice cream with a cherry, it is easier to remember that than if it were an image of ice cream with peanut butter because no one associates ice cream with peanut butter, but many do associate an ice cream sundae with a cherry on top.
I associate music with certain periods of my life: high school; college; music I studied and listened to in law school, and even music I played for my kids at bedtime.
So it makes sense that I enjoy seeing music live that I associate with these happy memories.
What is the relevance of music to brain injury?
I engaged in music therapy after my brain injury. As it turns out, music has a strong and scientifically documented correlation music based therapy after TBI.
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Emerging evidence like this resesarch suggests that music-based interventions (MBIs) hold a relatively untapped potential for improving cognition and neurobehavior after TBI. In normal uninjured rats that received MBIs, there are reports of increased hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression, reduced anxiety-like behavior, and improved cognitive benefit, which may be dependent on sex and age.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that music can be therapeutic for TBI patients.
Towards the beginning of my brain injury recovery, I participated in music therapy sessions which involved singing familiar songs.
Now I can further justify all the time and money I spend on concerts. They are therapeutic!
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