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MADRID (Euronews) – A study conducted by Chinese scientists and published in the journal Cell Reports shows that classical music does improve mood in people with depression by synchronising the “extended amygdala” and could therefore be considered a complementary treatment.
“Our study integrates the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry and neurosurgery, providing a foundation for any research aimed at the interaction between music and emotion,” said lead author, Professor and Director of the Functional Neurosurgery Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), Sun Bomin. “Ultimately, we hope to translate our findings into clinical practice and develop convenient and effective music therapy tools and applications,” he added.
The study focused on 23 patients with treatment-resistant depression who had electrodes implanted in their brains for deep brain stimulation. These implants were placed in a circuit connecting two areas of the forebrain: the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Using these implants, the researchers found that music produced antidepressant effects by synchronizing neuronal oscillations between the auditory cortex, which is responsible for processing sensory information, and the reward circuit, which is responsible for processing emotional information.
“The BNST-NAc circuit is sometimes referred to as part of the ‘extended amygdala,’ emphasizing the close relationship between this circuit and the amygdala, a central structure for processing emotional information,” Sun said. “This study shows that music induces a triple temporal blockade of neuronal oscillations in the cortico-BNST-NAc circuit via auditory synchronization,” he added.
Patients in the study were divided into two groups: those with low or high music appreciation. The group with high music appreciation showed more significant neural synchronization and better antidepressant effects, while the group with low music appreciation showed worse results.
By grouping the patients, the researchers were able to more precisely study the antidepressant mechanisms of music and come up with personalized music therapy plans to improve treatment outcomes. For example, by inserting theta frequency noise into the music to enhance BNST-NAc oscillatory coupling, patients in the low music appreciation group reported liking the music more.
Several pieces of Western classical music were used in the study. This type of music was chosen because most participants were unfamiliar with it and the researchers wanted to avoid any interference that might arise from subjective familiarity. “Thus, they concluded that the choice of music during formal listening was personalized and had nothing to do with the emotional context of the music,” Sun said.
The team’s future research will focus on several areas. On the one hand, they aim to study how the interaction between music and deep brain structures plays a role in depression. They will also introduce other forms of sensory stimulation, including visual imagery, to study the potential combined therapeutic effects of multisensory stimulation on depression.
“By collaborating with clinicians, music therapists, computer scientists and engineers, we plan to develop a series of digital health products based on music therapy, such as smartphone apps and wearable devices,” said Sun. “These products will integrate personalized music recommendations, real-time mood monitoring and feedback, and multi-sensory virtual reality experiences to provide comfortable and effective self-help tools for managing emotions and improving symptoms in daily life,” he concluded.
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