Does music induce interbrain synchronization between a non-speaking youth with cerebral palsy (CP), a parent, and a neurologic music therapist? A brief report

Electroencephalographic interbrain synchronization in children with disabilities, their parents, and neurologic music therapists

“…In terms of the frequency bands, a previous hyperscanning study in a music therapy setting (Samadani et al, 2021) found interbrain synchronization between child and parents in beta and low gamma bands. In contrast, we observed interbrain synchronization primarily in delta and theta bands, similar to Kang et al (2022). One important difference is that in Samadani et al (2021), children were engaged in a more interactive music therapy session (e.g., the music therapist encouraged children's active participation by interacting with instruments).…”

“…This duration of recording provided ample epochs for detecting the emergence of dyadic interbrain synchronization. Furthermore, previous hyperscanning studies of musical ensembles have also reported insights into the neural mechanisms of socio-emotional responses between dyads with small sample sizes (Kang et al, 2022, andFachner et al, 2019: one dyad;Babiloni et al, 2012: one quartet;Müller et al, 2013: one quartet;Babiloni et al, 2012: three quartets;Vanzella et al, 2019: five dyads). A second limitation is the heterogeneity of the youth participants, which may have inflated variations in interbrain synchronization capacity.…”

“…The above studies suggest that hyperscanning method may be feasible for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying various types of social interaction as well as dyadic relationships. However, despite the need to quantify CP and CT relationships during therapeutic interventions, to the best of our knowledge, there have only been two EEG hyperscanning studies exploring interbrain synchrony between children with disabilities and their parents (Kang et al, 2022; Samadani et al, 2021). Samadani et al (2021) found significant CP interbrain synchrony in empathy‐related brain regions (e.g., prefrontal and frontal areas) at beta (14–32 Hz) and lower gamma (32–64 Hz) bands.…”

Mechanistic research approaches in music therapy for pain: Humanizing and contextualized options for clinician-researchers

“…This approach aligns musical interaction with physiological changes as they occur over time, providing a structure to investigate mechanisms of change ( 37 ). Several examples include analysis of EEG and ECG and clinical improvisation between client-therapist dyads in stroke rehabilitation ( 15 ), EEG and music-evoked imagery between a participant-therapist dyad in a psychotherapy session ( 39 ), EEG and active music therapy between children and their observing parents ( 40 ), and EEG and active music therapy between a participant and clinician and the participant's observing parent ( 41 ). Understanding how individual brains relate to interactive, relational therapies can help shape the therapeutic approach.…”

“…Understanding how individual brains relate to interactive, relational therapies can help shape the therapeutic approach. Thus, Tucek et al ( 15 ) and Kang et al ( 41 ) propose that research in this area could seek to optimize intervention strategies for individual patients, perhaps by automating MOI detection in neural signals based on neural and subjective data, indicating when the dyad experiences the most effective moments of “engagement, insight, emotional intensity, and regulation” ( 15 , p. 19). This approach can work with nuances of patients' pain experiences, which fluctuate in response to many factors.…”