The Musical Neurons

This book explores connections between music, neural activations and brain plasticity, in order to better understand its associated psychological and physiological effects. The final goal is to focus on the positive effects of music to treat neurological disorders, establishing a new co-ordination between different brain areas to improve both mental illness and wellbeing. A secondary goal is to analyse the role of music at a psycho-sociological level, to understand both the transformation of music into a cultural model and the vision of music as an innate instinct.Music is able to create both emotions and volitional processes. The application of new neuroimaging techniques allows us to explore and evaluate with accuracy what happens in our brain during the creative and artistic performance. A wide range of brain regions are recruited for creative tasks, and music has the opportunity to help in enhance and reset some brain pathological disturbances being also able to ameliorate and restore some rhythmic body activities such as sleep, movement and co-ordination. The book represents a valuable and innovative tool both for neurologists as well as healthcare professionals involved in the management of neurological disorders.