Rediscovering Our Lost Selves: The Transformative Benefits of Music for Individuals with Neurological Impairment

Throughout history and in all known cultures, music has been used to promote many ends, including human wellbeing. Until recently, there has been virtually no scientific research into, let alone understanding of, the mechanisms by which music can have such life-altering effects. This talk will review contemporary uses of music as a treatment for neurological disorders that often affect the elderly: Parkinson’s disease, stroke and dementia. It will show how music can be understood as a transformative combination therapy that interacts with neurological disorders on multiple levels of function. Music can help patients to circumvent their impairments, triggering autobiographical memories, affecting neurochemical systems, and stimulating processes of brain plasticity that can help them reclaim lost identities.

Bill Thompson is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University, where he runs the Music, Sound and Performance Lab. He is Chief Investigator of the Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, and founding Director of the Centre for Elite Performance, Expertise and Training. His publications include Music, Thought and Feeling (2014) and the Encyclopedia of Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2014). He was elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science in 2015 and is currently President of the Australian Music Psychology Society.