The study sought to understand how music therapy altered mood for adolescents participating in group services as well as the effect that demographics had on mood alteration, or not. The study was conducted at a large pediatric psychiatric hospital and included over 350 participants aged 12-21 in 3 different units of the hospital.
Read MoreNeuroimaging has been used to chart human network connectivity and dopamine release in the brain when listening to what the participants rate as pleasurable music. Several different studies also used PET scans to track blood flow to various parts of the brain, including the mesocorticolimbic system which is primarily responsible for reward and reinforcement.
Read MoreI will leave you with a final quote from the authors “it is possible that these young people are more familiar and comfortable with chaos than we are as music therapists. It may then be counter-intuitive to attempt to eliminate chaos so that we can experience ordered, highly structured groups at odds with the environments to which young people return.”
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