Guest guest Posted March 31, 2008 Report Share Posted March 31, 2008 Music as a cerebral healer James Le Fanu on music as a cerebral healer and how a holiday diet can reveal a hidden illness Music can mend not only a broken heart but also, as reported in a study from Finland this week, a stroke-damaged brain. The therapeutic potential of music was recognized by the 17th century writer Richard Burton. He observed in the famous book The Anatomy of Melancholy that it was " a sovereign remedy against despair with the power to expel many illnesses " . The probable explanation lies in the brain's phenomenal property of " plasticity " , the capacity to reallocate its impaired functions to other parts of its real estate. This process begins almost immediately and is facilitated by the intensity of the stimuli reaching the brain through the senses. The researchers found listening to classical, jazz or folk music for as little as two hours a day to be an " easy and inexpensive means to promote early stroke recovery " . It is only surprising that no one thought of it before. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/index.jhtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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