The Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, a nonprofit, 501 (c) (3) agency, was founded on the idea that music has unique powers to heal, rehabilitate, and inspire -- and that we can use music therapy to restore and improve our physical, emotional, and neurological health. The Institute is dedicated to advancing scientific inquiry on music and the brain and to developing clinical treatments to benefit people of all ages.
Beginnings, Awakenings
The Institute developed out of many years of observations and clinical work at Beth Abraham. Oliver Sacks, MD, Concetta Tomaino, DA, MT-BC, and others observed that many people with neurological problems could learn to move better, remember more, and even regain speech when music was used in specific ways. Often the effect of music was instantaneous -- like the awakening of a patient who was able to feed himself when a rock and roll song was played.
What was happening in the brains of these individuals to make these responses possible? It became our passion to find out, to reach out to other physicians and scientists, and to use what we learned to improve the lives of patients and others.
Bringing Together Neuroscience and Music
Founded in 1995, under the leadership of Edwin H. Stern III, Arnold H. Goldstein, and the late Ben Rizzi, the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function has brought together two worlds: basic neuroscience and clinical music therapy. Today the Institute is one of the leading clinical programs offering innovative music-based treatments to patients.
Often we are able to help patients who have not been helped by traditional interventions. For example, we treated a patient who was told that he would not be able to use his hands again after a stroke, now, six years later (five years after completing traditional rehabilitation), he is able to hold drumsticks to play a digital drum. Through therapeutic drumming and the singing of familiar songs we have helped residents with dementia, who are mute and isolated, come together in communal experiences.
Today music and cognition is one of the fastest growing areas of neuroscience research. Researchers across many disciplines are beginning to recognize its exciting potential to transform our lives -- in everything from how we learn and develop, to how we can preserve health and wellness in old age.
Keeping the Promise...
Clinical Services, Research and Education
The Institute's clinical services and research focus on helping people with stroke and aphasia (loss of speech), movement disorders and Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, brain and spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's and other dementias, depression and anxiety and conditions requiring pain management and palliative care. The national importance of the Institute's clinical research was recognized by the United States Administration on Aging, which provided a grant to support the Institute's work on innovative music-based approaches to stroke and dementia care. The treatment approaches developed by the Institute have been recognized as best practices in the field, and serve as models for many other health care providers.
As part of its mission, the Institute brings the promise of music therapy and brain research to patients and their families, and to scientists and healthcare providers in the New York metropolitan area, and as far away as Phoenix, Philadelphia, and San Antonio. Most recently, in recognition of the Institute's groundbreaking work in Alzheimer care, Dr. Tomaino was invited to present at the 20th Annual Mayoral Conference on Alzheimer's disease in New York City.
