Bring together different researchers to promote a multidisciplinary debate focused on music with the aim to exchange opinions and to provide an information as complete as possible about its effects on the evolution of our species, as well as in the attitudes, emotions, and social behavior, has been the intention of the cycle “The music and its impact on the body and the mind”, that concluded on June 4 with the round table, entitled “Where the research on music is heading “.

The roundtable was composed by the coordinator of the cycle Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells, researcher of the IDIBELL and the University of Barcelona, Ruben López Cano, ethnomusicologist at the School of Music of Catalonia (Esmuc), and Mara Dierssen, researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CGR ). Jordi Morato, the IDIBELL communications director, was moderating the table.

Followed with great interest on the part of the public, which became apparent through a lively participation, the members of the table picked up some key ideas, targeted at previous conferences and focused, primarily, on the social phenomenon of music as an essential communication tool for interaction, as well as for therapeutic healing and brain stimulation.

“We would not understand each other if we don’t listen to music. It is a key factor for interacting with other members of the society and for sharing emotions and experiences”, stressed Ruben López.

Practical application to the education and health system

Despite the importance of music in the evolution of our species, and the proven fact that “music and cognition are related, producing plasticity in the language areas “, as emphasized Mara Dierssen, the investigation of this phenomenon in the scientific field is relatively recent and has not yet been transferred to society.”The knowledge we now have of the impact of music on the attitudes, cognition, and plasticity have not yet been applied to educational or health system. Transfering knowledge to clinical practice means overcoming many obstacles,” says Mara Dierssen.

However, it seems paradoxical that therapies as simple as singing, “that can help caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients to diminish its load of negative emotions”, as Rodríguez-Fornells remembered, cannot be inserted systematically into general education and health models. Dierssen explained that there are many specialists working in this topic and commented that “the therapeutic treatments work, but it is hard to demonstrate that they are working. It seems contradictory, but it is not. There is variability in the response. We have to make things in a measured way”.

A properly training in music or applying it therapeutically means to take into account many factors,” said Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells. “We should have multidisciplinary centers, help us between different areas and scientific fields”. “One of the obstacles for the interaction between disciplines is that for the sake of efficiency, the scientific areas withdraw into themselves instead of interacting”, says Ruben López.

In fact, they all agree that music therapy is evolving now thanks to the importance that is given from the field of neurosciences. According to Mara Dierssen, “the crossroads in neuroscience makes us move forward.”

Transfer of knowledge

The cycle that concludes with the roundtable has helped to boost a little bit multidisciplinary collaboration, so that music and its therapeutic effects could benefit in the future society as a whole. As summarized Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells, “we have counted on paleontologists, neuroscientists, musicologists, experts in studies of the rhythm and the auditory pathways for understanding the origin of the music and how it evolved”.

The cycle as a whole and the round table in particular, that have brought together researchers of different disciplines, is an example of interaction, transfer of knowledge and collaboration to ensure that music, as a healing and social phenomenon and as a tool for group cohesion will be better understood and to promote that their benefits could revert to society.

As stressed Jordi Morató, the moderator, “music is not an accessory, but has a very important role in our lives”.