Sounds Good! #30 // Music Can, SingFit, Neudio, New York Times, World Congress of Neurology
A weekly email on music, health and technology
Hello!
Welcome to issue #30 of Sounds Good! - a weekly roundup on the intersection of music, health and technology:
A new UK online platform called Music Can was launched this week which provides resources to help people use music as part of caring for people living with dementia. This new site was launched as part of a bigger announcement by the The National Academy For Social Prescribing which will launch a new national Centre of Excellence, described as “a partnership between health and care providers, voluntary organisations, music providers and dementia support organisations.”
US health plan Longevity now covers therapeutic music platform SingFit. This comes shortly after the announcement a couple of weeks ago that the MedRhythms music therapy app for stroke patients is now available on prescription in the US - demonstrating that digital music therapy is being adopted by mainstream medical providers.
Neudio, a startup which has developed a system of generating music based on a user’s brain activity which helps relaxation or focus, is mentioned in this article by Nature about the latest developments in Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs). This fascinating video showing the advancements in how BCIs can help people talk who have lost the power of speech is worth a watch.
The New York Times reports on the growth in music therapy. Dr Kenneth Aigen, the director of music therapy at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development is interviewed, who comments, “When you join with other human beings through music, there’s no other experience like it…I think it completely changes how you think of yourself.”
A study announced at the World Congress of Neurology (WCN) has shown that Neurologic music therapy (NMT) can help with movement, balance, and cognitive functioning in stroke patients.
Until next week!
Rob