PRINTPlaying sounds that soothe
Doctors and zoologists alike turn to music therapy
Courtesy Nandhu Radhakrishnan
Dr. Nandhu Radhakrishnan runs mock trials with his new system to ensure the equipment works before recruiting singers for the project. Ram Mohan, his research assistant, acts as the guinea pig.
July 12, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Susan Groves likes it when her patients play nice — songs, that is. As the director of music therapy at Fulton State Hospital, Groves employs group sessions in which her patients work together to perform pieces as an alternative means for psychological healing.
Music therapy has been around since Aristotle and Plato. But, it really took off after World War II when local musicians began playing in hospitals to comfort traumatized veterans. The staff noticed positive physical and emotional responses in the patients, so they requested that musicians be hired to provide a new type of therapy.
That principle is still in effect at Fulton State Hospital. “If they don’t work together, then the song doesn’t sound right,” says Groves. Patients who have been playing music their entire lives, as well as those who have never picked up an instrument, benefit equally.
“The beauty about music is that it can be very simple, or it can be very complex,” says Groves. “It’s a very powerful thing.”
Mapping a melody
Think you have the vocal cords to be the next American Idol? Nandhu Radhakrishnan has the tools to tell you. During the past two years, Radhakrishnan, assistant professor of communication science and disorders at MU, has been developing the Laryngeal Physiology Lab on campus to study just what good singers do to produce those perfect pipes.
By placing a band around the subject’s neck and giving them a mouthpiece to speak into, Radhakrishnan can record exactly how a person’s muscles and organs work together to produce sounds. His goal is to give people a visual picture of what the vocal cords actually do. Because individuals’ organs and muscles can work differently and still produce the same sound, Radhakrishnan hopes to figure out what differentiates the Mariahs from the Sanjayas.
Raw attraction
Scientists at Rowland Institute in Cambridge, Mass., have discovered that fish can listen to and process tunes in a way very similar to humans. At the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in England, some of the shark keepers were just having a little fun when they decided to play Barry White records into a female nurse shark’s tank. The legendary swooner caused sparks to fly and now, 12 months later, keepers have noticed a bulge that they’re hoping will mean baby sharks. At England’s Blackpool Sea Life Centre, specialists play music to encourage a pair of sharks to mate. Although White didn’t do the trick, keepers are hoping the sharks have a taste for classical as they plan to play Mozart’s “Romanze” and Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.”
Tunes for the tiny
A new pacifier is helping preemies get out and on with life faster than you can say, “Shake your booties.” Florida Hospital is one of two health care facilities in the nation that have begun using the Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL) on preemies who haven’t yet developed the suck-swallow-breathe reflex important for feeding.
A sensor is installed in the pacifier, and when the baby sucks, music plays. The system is not only helpful to the baby, but it also aids the doctors. The PAL can tell the pressure of the suck, how many sucks it took to trigger the music and the baby’s pacing and endurance. According to hospital personnel, babies using the system are feeding twice as much and, on average, leaving the hospital two weeks earlier than babies who have not been using it.
Cries of the wild
Don’t bother shelling out cash for that pet psychic when Fluffy fails to roll over. The unusual high frequencies of sounds bouncing around the house could be to blame. Microfine Labs has found a way to remedy this. Its CDs are designed to stimulate pets’ evolved senses.
At the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago, technicians spent countless hours isolating and recording the songs and sounds of tranquil birds. One team even recorded the resonances of the rainforest in Costa Rica. These compilations have been divided into discs specific to the native regions of house pets and tailored even further to their particular ailments.
Is your ferret neglecting his food dish? There’s a disc engineered specifically to stimulate his appetite. If Spot has tendonitis from too many hours fetching, just throw on the speed-healing album.
These discs address a domesticate’s every woe. At animalwhispers.org, owners can purchase for their pets — including dairy cattle — the experience of being in the wild for one easy payment of $16.95.
