Mozart Sonata improves epilepsy in people resistant to drugs

Listening to Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos in D major (K448) for at least 30 seconds can be combined with less frequent peaks of electrical activity associated with epilepsy in the brain in people with drug-resistant epilepsy.

This has been confirmed by American scientists, who also suggest that positive emotional responses to K448 they may contribute to its therapeutic effects, as published yesterday in Scientific Reports. These data, oddly enough, are not surprising, as previous research has shown that listening to Mozart’s Sonata K448 is also associated with spikes. less frequent electrical activity associated with epilepsy in the brain in patients with this neurological disease.

However, until now it was unknown the impact of the duration of the music on the said association and the causes.

This led a team from the Geisel School of Medicine University in Dartmouth, (USA), coordinated by Robert Quon, used an electroencephalogram (EEG) technique to assess electrical activity in the brains of 16 adults with drug-resistant epilepsy as they listened to a series of 15- or 90-second music videos, including that of the Sonata K448.

An EEG is a test that detects electrical activity in the brain using small metal discs (electrodes) attached to the scalp. Neurons in the brain communicate through Electrical impulses and they are active all the time, even while you are sleeping.

And the results showed that only Mozart, in particular his Sonata K448, had beneficial effects on patients.

The authors found that listening to K448 for 30 to 90 seconds caused a 66.5% average reduction of the number of spikes in electrical activity associated with epilepsy throughout the brain. Further analysis showed that these decreases were greatest in the left and right frontal cortices of the brain, parts of the brain involved in regulating emotional responses.

“There is growing evidence for the effectiveness of music, particularly Mozart’s Piano Sonata in D major (K448), in reducing critical and intercritical epileptiform activity. However, little is known about the mechanism underlying this beneficial ‘Mozart K448 effect’ for people with epilepsy, ”the study experts explained.

The researchers also observed that when participants listened to the end long repetitive sections in K448, a type of electrical activity, called activity theta, increased in their frontal cortices.

“We measured the influence of K448 on intracranial interictal epileptiform discharges (IED) in sixteen subjects undergoing intracranial surveillance for refractory focal epilepsy. We found reduced IEDs in the original version of K448 after at least 30 seconds of exposure. These results suggest that the “Mozart K448 effect” depends on the duration of exposure and may preferentially modulate activity in frontal emotional networks., providing information about the mechanism underlying this response. Our results encourage the continued evaluation of Mozart’s K448 as a non-invasive, non-pharmacologic intervention for refractory epilepsy, ”added the experts.

Previous research has suggested that theta activity may be associated with positive emotional responses to music.

The authors hypothesize that listening to K448 for so long just 30 seconds can activate networks in the brain that are associated with positive emotional responses to music and are regulated by the frontal cortex.

Activating these networks may help reduce the spikes in electrical activity associated with epilepsy in people with drug-resistant epilepsy, they concluded.

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