Does Listening to Mozart Really Have Health Benefits?

Every treatment had been tried for the patient's severe epilepsy. Seven epileptic drugs, and brain surgery, had failed to have any effect on the seizures and fits he had suffered daily for much of his 46 years. With no sign of any improvement, and with tests confirming a deterioration in learning skills and memory over a nine-year period, surgeons decided that he should be assessed for further brain surgery.

But, shortly before the patient was scheduled for tests, there was a remarkable improvement. The gelastic (or laughing) fits he had suffered up to six times day subsided. Instead of uncontrollable laughing fits, they became six- to nine-second-long involuntary smiles that he was able to control. He had also been having about seven generalized seizures a month, but he had had none in three months.

When doctors investigated, they found that the transformation was down to a lifestyle change. He had started to listen to Mozart for 45 minutes a day.

The case of the 46-year-old man, being reported by doctors at the Institute of Neurology in London, is the latest success put down to the "Mozart effect", which has been linked to benefits as diverse as improved mathematical skills, enhanced fetal brain development, reduced stress, improved learning and IQ, less arthritis pain, and improved performance on eye tests. Rats exposed to the music also perform better in maze tests, while fish appeared to be happier and healthier.

The original Mozart-effect research looked at the effects of the K448 piano sonata on the performance of spatial IQ tests. Volunteers had to visualize correctly the unfolded shape of a piece of paper that had been folded several times. The performance of those who listened to the Mozart was quantified as being equivalent to a temporary increase in IQ of eight to nine points.

One theory put forward to explain this performance is that areas of the brain involved in processing music overlap those concerned with spatial perception, which become stimulated, or warmed up. But, while some researchers found similar effects, others found none or proposed countertheories, including the suggestion that the increased performance is simply due to people becoming more aroused when exposed to music. As a result, the concept of a Mozart effect has become mired in controversy.

A Mozart effect has also been linked to behavioral and other changes, including stress, depression, arthritis pain, fetal development and performance on eye-test charts. And it is now attracting attention as a potential treatment for epilepsy.

Some research offers clues as to just why this composer's music seems to have such an effect. It suggests also that the music does not have to be appreciated, or consciously listened to, to have an effect. Only a small number of studies have been carried out on the Mozart effect and epilepsy, but most of them show a beneficial effect. Neurologists at the University of Illinois found that a child with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy, had fewer seizures while exposed to K448 for 10 minutes every hour. A second study at the center found changes in brain activity in 23 out of 29 cases when Mozart was played. In some cases the changes occurred during coma, suggesting that any effect is not conditional on the music being appreciated; it appears to have some kind of direct effect.

But what could it be? According to Dr John Hughes of the University of Illinois, it may be that Mozart's complex music has an effect similar to pulsating electrical stimulation, bringing order to malfunctioning nerve cells in the brain. "The architecture of Mozart's music is brilliantly complex, but also highly organized. The organization of the cerebral cortex would seem to resonate with the architecture of Mozart's music to normalize any sub-optimal functioning of the cortex," he says.