What's new in research?

Music and the brain

I find a useful place to look at contemporary research is at Frontiers in Neuroscience.

In March this year a paper was published in the journal Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience by Hardy and LaGasse which proposed that for children with autism, the motor difficulties associated with the diagnosis have been overlooked. They wrote:

Persons with autism are often provided behavioural or cognitive strategies for navigating their environment; however, these strategies do not consider differences in motor functioning. One accommodation that has not yet been explored in the literature is the use of auditory rhythmic cueing to improve motor functioning in ASD. …we review research on rhythm in motor rehabilitation, draw parallels to motor dysfunction in ASD, and propose a rationale for how rhythmic input can improve sensorimotor functioning, thereby allowing individuals with autism to demonstrate their full cognitive, behavioral, social, and communicative potential.  (Full paper here)

 

Discussing polyvagal theory

Polyvagal theory has increasing currency in therapy practice, interview here. Stephen Porges the founder of the theory has been very generous to music therapy as this chapter in press demonstrates. You can find out more about him here. 

A research colleague at the University of Edinburgh who uses sound and listening with children who are diagnosed in the autism spectrum has applied this theory as described in this summary.