The Mozart Effect

The medicinal properties of Mozart continue to stun scientists. Listening to his works has been linked to reduced stress, improved learning, and pain relief. Now a University of Illinois study has found that a child with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy, had fewer seizures while exposed to Mozart's Sonata in DMajor for 10minutes every hour, The Independent reported.

Another study at the university found changes in brain activity in 23 out of 29 cases when Mozart was played. In some cases the changes occurred during coma, suggesting any effect is not linked to the music being appreciated; it appears to have some kind of direct effect. The university's Dr. John Hughes said Mozart's complex music might have an effect similar to pulsating electrical stimulation, bringing order to malfunctioning nerve cells in the brain.

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Music may exert healing and sedative effects partly through a paradoxical stimulation of a growth hormone usually associated with stress, says the pianist and surgeon Dr Claudius Conrad, of Harvard Medical School.

In a paper in Critical Care Medicine, Conrad said his team had revealed an unexpected element in distressed patients' physiological response to music: a jump in pituitary growth hormone - known to be crucial in healing. "It's a sort of quickening," he said, "that produces a calming effect."

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