Lullabies are a common solution to crying children. Before babies’ brains even approach the ability to speak, they can react to music and we use it to soothe them. I want to know what it is about music that can generally soothe a crying baby so easily. I believe there must be a certain reaction in the brain that is the explanation behind it.

A study done by the Great Ormond Street Hospital was mentioned in article by the Telegraph. Their experiment first sought to find evidence that music really does soothe babies. The hospital tested on thirty-seven children under three that were all inflicted by respiratory or heart problems. I believe that by using children under some distress, the circumstances were more extreme which they hoped would provide more clear results. Each child was put through three ten minute trials. During one trial they were read to, another they were sung lullabies and another they were left by themselves. After the music sessions, the results showed a “significant  decrease in heart rate and pain level”. The music was soothing in multiple ways. I think that the same findings could be seen in many observational studies of distressed children as well. However, for this particular experiment I wish they would specify if the ten-minute intervals were spread out or done in a row. I believe that would impact the interpretation of the data because one could not really tell if it was only the music rather than a combination of all three. Other than that I believe it to be a fairly sound experiment. The conductors of the experiment commented that these results were obviously atavistic, meaning something “related to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral”. They believe that the infant enjoys the music because it relates back to the outside world. I am not satisfied at all with their explanation because it does not provide a mechanism. However, a Tim Griffiths, who is mentioned as having commented on the experiment, provides a better explanation. He believes that the music arouses the emotional part of the brain which decreases pain responses. In this case, the mechanism would be increased emotional activity in the brain which leads to a more soothed child.

Sing baby with headphone,isolated on a white background.

If music can be so dramatically soothing for children, I wondered if it could have other useful healing qualities. I found that experiments have actually been done studying the affect of music on adult cancer patients. They used a meta-analysis of randomized control trials. The forty-five studies of sixty-two controlled treatment comparisons used mostly white, American female participants. The studies compared several different types of treatment including music therapy. The other treatments included “behavioral interventions, nonbehavioral counseling and therapy, informational and educational methods, organized social support provided by other patients, and other non-hospice interventions”. Unfortunately, the experiment did not find significantly different results from the use of music. Each treatment resulted in similar effectiveness. I think this study could be taken further. I believe it is worth it to continue in to the field and conduct experiments maybe using different genres of music, varying chords, varying voice types, and so on. Further experiments could also study the affects on a larger variation in participants rather than a majority of women. They could study the affects on different races and maybe even different ages. I think there could be a future for Music Therapy in medicine.