Music and the Brain

“Nothing activates the brain so extensively as music,” said the late Oliver Sacks, M.D., neurologist, and author of Musicophilia. Music not only provides structure, it increases the level of dopamine in the brain. This is especially important for those with conditions like ADHD and Autism.

My friend, Ellen Hoffman, is an extraordinary woman. She’s a self-employed musician – pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, music director and producer who happens to also have attention deficit disorder. I talked with her about the amazing ways music can affect the brain and she shared the following story about a young autistic man, Ryan, she worked with at Napa State Hospital.

Like many autistic children, this boy was drawn to music. He loved listening to music – the radio, the record player, and especially to the piano. He had a sweet singing voice which had not changed yet. His favorite song to sing was Your Cheatin’ Heart. He knew all the words – even though he had no idea what they meant. He knew fragments of other songs, but this was the only song he knew all the way through. When he was in a good mood, he would sing the whole song, much like those of us who are not autistic might do.

Other than singing, he was generally non-verbal, rarely speaking more than a short sentence at a time. However, he was much more communicative thru music. If I asked him a question “Ryan, do you want a cookie?” and he was in a good mood, he would SING the answer, “Yes, I want a cookie” – in a melody all his own. Or “Ryan, how are you feeling right now?” His melodic answer might be, “Ryan is OK right now.”

I learned that if I sang to him, he was more likely to answer. If I played the piano AND sang, he was MUCH more likely to answer. The more I provided music for him, the more he related to me, and the less combative he was. Music calmed him down, made him almost happy, and improved his ability to relate to those around him, even for just a short time.

While ADHD is not nearly as extreme as Autism, music can still be vital to how someone with ADHD functions. I have one client who regularly listens to music while working. Her explanation: the music filters out the world so that she only has to filter out the music.

How music helps people with ADHD was perfectly summed up in an article I read recently called How Music Unlocked My Son’s ADHD Brain in ADDitude:

Music builds and strengthens the auditory, visual/spatial, and motor cortices of the brain. These areas are tied to speech and language, reading, reading comprehension, math, problem solving, brain organization, focusing, concentration, and attention issues.

-Sydney Metrick