Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity

Drawing from case studies, medical biographies, and peer-reviewed studies, this collection sheds new light on the interdisciplinary connections between the arts and medicine. It covers topics from the evolutionary roots of musicality to creative arts therapies, surveying thought-provoking findings in the music-medical borderlands.

This book presents an interdisciplinary survey at the intersection of music, creativity, and medicine. Featuring contributions from medical doctors, psychologists, and musicians, it surveys thought-provoking findings in the music-medical borderlands. Experts in neuroscience explore the cerebral underpinnings of music, from auditory-motor interactions, to rhythm, to the role of music in therapy, epilepsy, and cognitive disorders. Case studies describe medical biographies of musical masters, including Beethoven's deafness, Schumann's deterioration, Ravel's dementia, and Gershwin's brain tumor. There are accompanying studio recordings from the volume editors. Students, researchers, or anyone interested in the new frontiers of music in medicine will find original cross-disciplinary connections in this volume.