The new systematic review has analyzed dozens of studies exploring the effect of Mozart's music on epilepsy, and it shows that classical piano music does indeed have a salutary effect on the sick.
It all started in 1993, when the psychologist Francis Rauscher conducted a small experiment on a group of 36 students, namely checking their visual-spatial intelligence under 3 different circumstances. Each test was performed immediately after 10 minutes of silence, 10 minutes of vocal relaxation, and 10 minutes of listening to two Mozart pieces. It quickly turned out that the latter variant resulted in an average of 10 points higher results - we have been hearing about the so-called the Mozart effect, i.e. a slight improvement in spatial abilities and general intelligence caused by listening to works of baroque and classical music, especially Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
At one point, he was so loud and popular that it was recommended to play Mozart for children to be wiser in the future. Unfortunately, it is too good to be true and, according to scientists, the Mozart effect is overestimated in social consciousness, especially its impact on the development of intelligence in infants, which has not been confirmed by research. In adults, you can actually observe stimulation and improvement in intelligence, but the effects are fleeting and short-lived, so you might as well skip them if you are not fans of the classics. Nevertheless, in the meantime, some evidence has emerged that Mozart's music can actually have a therapeutic effect, but not on all, but on ... epileptics.
In short, there has been much evidence in recent years that listening to Mozart has a significant impact on reducing the number of epilepsy episodes. - This is not the first time that Mozart's music works on epilepsy, but a lot has happened in recent years, so it was high time to stop and look at it all as a whole. Especially that some studies looked at the effects of a single session, and others looked at the effects of daily listening, which does not facilitate inference, says Gianluca Sesso, one of the authors of the new analysis.
He focused on 12 important studies from the last decade, which led him to conclude that listening to Mozart can reduce the frequency of attacks by 31 to as much as 66% - the effects depend on the patient and specific songs. - All cultures have music, so clearly it fulfills some psychological need. The mechanism of the Mozart Effect is poorly understood and studied. Of course, other music may have a similar effect, but it may also be that Mozart's sonatas have a distinctive rhythmic structure that is perfect for working with epilepsy. This can involve many brain systems, but we need to show it, adds Sesso. And while we are still quite a long way from prescribing Mozart, scientists have enough convincing evidence to take a closer look at this amazing phenomenon and carefully trace its effects on our brain.