by Jon
Today I had a terrific interview with Julian O'Kelly, head of music therapy at the RHN. After bonding over the fact that we'd both owned the same make of cassette multi-track recorder in our youths, we talked about Julian's fascinating research, which amongst other things focuses on neural responses to different kinds of music from people in low awareness / vegetative states, and involves close analysis of EEG scans. These are often crucial in the diagnosis of Locked-In Syndrome, especially before the stage at which patients have become able to communicate; their EEG scans are of course exactly the same as a normally conscious and cognitively functional person, showing spikes and movement in response to external stimuli (such as music!) whereas those of patients in low-consciousness states are much flatter.
As I watched the EEG scans moving on Julian's computer screen, I was very struck by how much their multi-layered patterns resemble an abstract sort of musical notation (perhaps Will might be interested in this from a visual point of view as well...). I was also fascinated by the process of how music therapists often begin to work with low-awareness patients – beginning with a single note played in time with the patient's breathing, which is then added to and expanded until it might grow into something quite complex. Lots of ideas already starting to float around...