NEUROMUSICOTERAPIA NO BRASIL: ASPECTOS TERAPÊUTICOS NA REABILITAÇÃO NEUROLÓGICA

Abstract

Music is present in every culture and, from the earliest ages, we all have the basic capacities needed to process it, although this processing takes place in different modules that involve different regions of the brain. The production and perception of music engage a large part of our cognitive capabilities, involving areas of the auditory cortex and the motor cortex. On the other hand, music produces emotional responses within us that involve other cortical and subcortical areas. Music is a very powerful multimodal stimulus that transmits visual, auditory and motor information to our brain, which in turn has a specific network for processing it, consisting in the frontotemporoparietal regions. This activation can be very beneficial in the treatment of several syndromes and neurological diseases, either by rehabilitating or by stimulating altered neuronal connections. According to Thaut et al., neurologic music therapy is the therapeutic application of music to stimulate changes in cognitive and motor areas after a neurological disease. In 2009, a group of Brazilian music therapists, founded the Brazilian Society of Neurologic Music Therapy, with the aim of promoting education and scientific research in music therapy in Brazil. In the same year, the music therapists Alcântara-Silva & Moreira founded a specialization called “neuro-music therapy” in order to treat and rehabilitate neurological patients using neurologic music therapy in conjunction with other specific techniques of music therapy and rehabilitation.