Music ‘may help to treat patients with epilepsy’

A new study has highlighted a potential therapeutic benefit to playing music for people with epilepsy.

Led by the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, the research saw 21 epilepsy monitoring unit patients played samples of music, including a Mozart piece and John Coltrane's rendition of My Favorite Things, separated by ten-minute periods of silence.

The researchers found significantly higher levels of brainwave activity in participants when they were listening to music, with people with epilepsy tending to synchronise more with the music, especially in the temporal lobe.

This may be because music is processed in the auditory cortex, which is also located in this region of the brain.

Dr Christine Charyton, adjunct assistant professor and visiting assistant professor of neurology at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said: "We believe that music could potentially be used as an intervention to help people with epilepsy."

It was hypothesised that music might be a helpful intervention in conjunction with traditional treatment to help prevent seizures.