Medical Technologies Involving Music

In generations before, people would have thought that music had no place in the medical field. It was something for enjoyment and just a leisurely love of most people. It has been making its way into every part of medicine though from therapeutics to neurology. Neurologist, Oliver Sacks, is one person that really sees how important music is in the lives of every person. “In many different circumstances, music may arise involuntarily within a person, as attested to by Sacks' initial presentation of cases of sudden intense affinity for music and development of musical skills, of so-called brain worms or tunes that automatically repeat within the mind, and of musical seizures and hallucinations. Despite the range of individual experience of music, from incomprehension of melody, rhythm, or harmony, to perfect pitch to synesthesia, it seems that anyone could have a sudden loss or gain in musicality.” (Olson, 2007). The seeming universality of musical mental imaging, even in the deaf, has encouraged the therapeutic use of music to treat an increasing number of illnesses, including the results of severe brain damage, congenital conditions, and such degenerative neuropathies as Parkinsons and Alzheimer's (Olson). One of the most impressive technologies incorporates one of the most looked down upon music genres, hip-hop. “Researchers at Purdue University developed a small pressure sensor that can be implanted to monitor pressure in places like the bladder or a blood vessel damaged by an aneurysm” (Boyle, 2012). The issue with this device though was trying to figure out how they would power such a small implant without a battery. “Ziaie and fellow researchers placed the device in a water-filled balloon and tested it with rap, blues, jazz and rock music. “(Boyle). It turned out that hip-hop worked the best (Boyle). “It contains a lot of low frequency sound, notably the bass,” Ziaie said (Boyle). How it would work is when the frequency falls outside the required range, the cantilever would stop vibrating, and the sensor would take a pressure reading and transmit data as radio signals (Boyle). Ziaie said this type of measurement would be taken for a couple minutes every hour or so to keep tabs on a person’s bladder or blood pressure (Boyle). Music’s big impact on medicine is going to continue to grow and maybe one day someone’s favorite song will be saving lives.