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I was doing some reading on my research paper about autism and in light of last week’s discussion about outputs creating further inputs, I thought that this condition was particularly interesting.  Autistic individuals often have sensory integration difficulties meaning that they are hypersensitive to normal stimulation.  For example, they have little or no pain sensitivity or experience discomfort when they hear certain noises that others would consider normal. 

Interestingly, music therapy has been a successful method to calm autistic children and teach them proper ways to behave.  One specific method involves the use of therapeutic songs.  Songs with lyrics to one of the child’s favorite songs were created that served as directions for how to behave in certain social situations such has how to behave at the dinner table.  The children in the study engaged in the undesirable behavior less frequently after the song had been repeatedly sung to them over the course of a few days. 

One music therapist noted, “The information goes into the brain differently when you talk [compared to when you sing].”  This makes sense to me because it is usually significantly easier to remember something in song form compared to just memorizing lyrics.  For example, children learn the ABCs to the tune of a song.  I learned—and still remember—all 50 states alphabetical order thanks to a song I learned in 4th grade.   

The results from the work with autistic individuals make me curious about how and why the brain processes music differently than other sounds for everyone, not just autistic people.  Why is music calming?  Why does it help people remember things?  What is it about the input of music that results in these different outputs?