Seminar: Music and the ageing brain

Speaker: Sarah Faber (Anglia Ruskin University)

Abstract: Music is a curious phenomenon. It has the power to console us as children, define us as youths, and sustain us in old age; yet research has only recently begun to investigate the neural correlates of our relationship with music. Meanwhile, music therapists have been using music clinically to treat a variety of clinical populations, often with remarkable results. A striking area of music therapy practice is in the treatment of individuals with dementia where music seems to act as a tangible window to the past, and a source of joy in the present. What are the underlying mechanisms of music with individuals with dementia and how does music therapy “work” with this population? This talk will provide a review of recent literature on music and the brain and music therapy, and will discuss implications of these studies to the lives of individuals with dementia.