How Music Can Be Used as Medicine: 1A: NPR

A violinist reads a score to the press during a presentation by the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra.

MAURICIO DUENAS/AFP via Getty Images

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MAURICIO DUENAS/AFP via Getty Images

A violinist reads a score to the press during a presentation by the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra.

MAURICIO DUENAS/AFP via Getty Images

Music has the power to evoke a wide range of emotions. It can make us melancholic. Or it can fill us with hope.

Music is also often linked to memories and experiences. There’s probably a playlist you associate with every stage of your life – from the music that got you through high school to the song that reminds you of a lost loved one.

Music doesn’t just sound good. It can also help us be more empathetic. It is even used to treat conditions such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.

In this issue of The Scientific Method, we discuss how music affects the mind, why it can be a powerful treatment tool, and how the songs we love bring us closer together.

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