To those of us outside the field of neurosurgery, the title of a recent report may only hint at its significance. Auditory entrainment coordinates cortical-BNST-NAc triple time locking to alleviate the depressive disorder was recently published in Cell Reports, an academic research journal.
Chinese researchers read previous papers on the effects of listening to music on human emotional responses, but the findings were not always clear or conclusive.
The Study
The researchers used intracranial (i.e. positioned inside the skull) recordings of specific measurements — for the scientists in the crowd: the stria terminalis (BNST) and nucleus accumbens (Nac) recorded in the bed nucleus, along with temporal scalp electroencephalogram (EEG).
The BNST is thought to be a connective centre between other regions of the brain. It’s part of what is called the brain’s reward circuit — the cascade of responses that make us feel good. The circuit is connected with the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes negative emotions.
Details
The study used 23 patients who had been diagnosed as treatment-resistant. Other treatments had not been successful, in other words. These patients had electrodes implanted into their BNST-NAc circuit, not only for the study per se, but to facilitate future treatment via something called deep brain stimulation.
EEG signals were recorded, with particular attention to the signals in the temporal area, where the auditory cortex is located. Through various tests, the researchers eliminated the variables one by one until the clear pattern emerged.
One group of 13 participants listened to music with a specific emotional context.
- The musical preferences and emotional responses were recorded using a visual scale, and they used Western classical music which was unfamiliar to the Asian patients to remove the variable of familiarity.
- Specifically they listened to the sad strains of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, representing sadness, and the joyful third movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
This part of the experiment did not demonstrate a significant difference in their symptoms of depression when listening to music.
- Another group of 10 were tested on music that they were familiar with.
- The researchers created a playlist consisting of eight pieces that the participants were not already familiar with.
- They listened to the playlist three times a day for 14 days, developing familiarity with it.
- The next step was to rate the eight pieces in terms of their own preferences, i.e. which they liked the best and the least, and so on.
- The group was then split into two — one which listened to their most favourite pieces, and another which listened to the pieces they liked the least.
That’s where the differences became significant to the study. It led the researchers to conclude that subjective enjoyment was the key; it kicked off the reward circuit in the brain, and led to antidepressant effects.
Listening to music synchronized the neural oscillations from the emotional centre of the brain with those stemming from the auditory circuit. As such, the music they preferred activated an antidepressant response, which underscores the physical nature of both depression and our responses to art.
Why It’s Important
The main deciding factor, in the end, was simply enjoyment. When the test subjects enjoyed the music, the antidepressant effect kicked in. Music therapists will examine a patient’s situation, and find music that speaks to them to work through it; the new study offers a clear reinforcement of the concept.
Music therapy is an established practice, but new findings about the physical workings behind our emotions can add important dimensions.
Bomin Sun, director of the Center for Functional Neurosurgery at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and lead author of the study, explains in an interview with El Pais, “With this, we have tried to discover the mechanisms through which music influences these brain areas, providing a scientific basis for personalized music therapy for depression.”
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