Music Benefits Brain-injured Patients at Crotched Mountain

David Kontak poses with one of his musical inventions. (Dianne Finch, NHPR)

20 year old Charlie Bates is a full time resident at the Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield.

AMBI: Charlie enters

When he arrived for his music therapy session - I saw a young man who seemed to be unaware of his surroundings.

His head hung low, he seemed to be staring at the floor.

He was drooling.

But I noticed him peeking at me, shyly, out of the corner of his eye.

AMBI: guitar session

His therapist Donna Chadwick started the session by playing the guitar – singing the few words that Bates is familiar with.

Words like “music” – “guitar” -- and his own name.

AMBI: guitar, words Charlie, Music, play….

After several minutes – his legs began to move.

And he looked up at that guitar like it was a big piece of chocolate cake – eyes wide open.

He tapped his feet ever so lightly - and with some urging – he reached for that guitar gave it one solid strum…

AMBI: Charlie strums

Chadwick’s guitar playing seemed to bring Bates from some isolated place.
So she brought out another string instrument that Bates could actively play with her.

It’s called a Double Zither.

It’s long and narrow – and can be played from each end.

She placed the zither on both of their their laps.

AMBI: Double Zither enters

Chadwick: It’s great for me to use it with a client. It’s non-confrontive…I can sit side by side with person they don’t need to have direct eye contact if they’re shy. It’s portable enough so that I can put it on a wheelchair tray or hold it on a different plane.”

After Bates strummed on his own, he turned to look at me – wearing a big wide smile - as if to say “look, I’m a musician.”

CUT: more music..

And he struggled to say the word “more”.

CUT: Charlie says “more.”

Chadwick said that Bates’ 45 minute sessions often go that way – he starts out motionless, and then...

Chadwick: “..he’s moving he’s rocking he’s jumping he’s vocalizing he’s breathing heavier his eyes are lit up they’re watching It’s a full body full system response and - completely happy.”

Bates was born with a brain disorder that hampers his ability to speak, walk, or understand what he hears.

Other patients at Crotched Mountain were also born with disabilities.

Some suffer from brain injuries resulting from accidents.

But most patients at the facility can engage in music making in one way or another.

And that’s partly due to the efforts of David Kontak.

He’s an occupational therapist and musician – and he directs Crotched Mountain’s Assistive Technology Unit.

Kontak designed that Double Zither Chadwick played with Charlie Bates.

And his group works on all kinds of gadgets that help patients exercise their minds and bodies.

KONTAK: “So much of what we’re trying to do is after someone’s had a brain injury particularly is to try to get them to use their hands again. So the key here is to find attractive ways interesting ways for people to regain use of their limbs and it’s very hard work to do that after a brain injury it takes a monumental effort to just be able to extend your elbow to open your hand to grasp something and so we have to try to find things that really make it worth all the effort.”

But he’s particularly passionate about music.

AMBI: Rehearsal

A group of patients rehearse for a concert.

They’re using some of the instruments Kontak invented or customized.

One is a modified keyboard that allows patients to use their fists instead of their fingers.

Another allows patients to create sound in a synthesizer simply by waving their arms in front of it.

What they produce may not sound like the Boston Symphony – but the music they make is impressive.

AMBI: pound pound

That’s another one of Kontak’s creations – made from a simple pipe.

It’s U-shaped and partially filled with water.

Kontak hits it with a paddle.

AMBI: (water again and pound pound)

Kontak: “…..As I turn the turn the tube it makes the sounding length different because the water stops the sound and so changes the length of the drum and so it’s sort of a sliding pitch drum.”

Hugh Hamilton is learning to play another of Kontaks inventions.

It’s a guitar using a crank and some large buttons – no fingers required.

HUGH: “ah what do these buttons do?”

KONTAK: “Those are going to change the notes so if you just strum like this without pressing anything you’ll get one set of notes but if you push these down it’ll change the note you’ll see in just a second…you don’t have to go all the way around you can just go back and forth like this…back and forth…like this…..yah cool..”

Once those patients and their music teacher get together with all those pipes, bells, strings and gadgets – the concert starts.

AMBI: Teacher says 1,2,3 – then drums….

And then comes this…

AMBI: keyboards

And more….

AMBI: shakers, other

These patients at Crotched seem to be benefitting immensely from making music.

And scientists say they think they understand why – though there’s more to learn.

Mark Jude Tramo is a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School - and an attending neurologist at Mass General Hospital in Boston.

He’s renowned for his research on how music affects the brain.

And he says like other mental activities, music appears to stimulate the brain’s natural tendency to repair itself.

TRAMO: The neurons have arms and legs that can get damaged but can to some extent grow back and make new connections.. And other parts of the brain that haven’t been damaged can sometimes take on the job of the neurons that have been damaged…..”

Music, he says, exercises parts of the brain that drive many of the body’s functions – such as moving arms or legs – and more.

TRAMO: “…so music is a great way to use the brain because there’s so much it can tap into with respect to sensation and movement and cognition and emotion and so you’re using something that‘s very natural for humans and ubiquitous in human cultures.”

Tramo hopes that one day health insurers will cover music therapy and that doctors, nurses and other practitioners will be writing prescriptions for it.

But for that to happen he says, the theories about the benefits of music will need further study.

“Anecdotally, based on experience, we know that it works for certain individuals...In science and in medicine to prove that it could be helpful requires a certain approach or methodology to demonstrating the utility and we’re lacking that in terms of the application of music in education in treating disease in the maintenance of health.”

AMBI: Back to Charlie session

The last I heard – Charlie Bates’ family was taking him out to listen to the Blue Man Group in Boston make all kinds of music.

For NHPR News, I’m Dianne Finch.