Brahms and Mick Jagger competing with Superman and Batman? Jacques Mitsch immediately poses the problem of his documentary on music, "a superpower within everyone's reach". And for everyone, from the fetus to Alzheimer's patients.
It is with the legendary Rolling Stones song - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - in the background that this documentary reveals the "amazing scientific experiments" carried out with music.
In Dijon, the soprano Delphine Ribemont-Lambert sings in the ear of very premature babies to improve their physiological state. In Barcelona, a team of gynecologists from the Marques Institute has created intravaginal speakers to play music to fetuses from the sixth month of pregnancy. In Leipzig, a fitness machine uses the doping effects of music to cure certain addictions. In Canada, speed dating sessions with music are held, which highlight its influence on the emotions of the participants. In Caen, musical workshops for Alzheimer's patients allow them to learn new songs, those who generally only remember those from their childhood.
"Positive effect on development"
Listening to music, neurons "coordinate like the instrumentalists of a large orchestra", says Professor Emmanuel Bigand, initiator of the documentary with his book La Symphonie neuronale. Why music is essential to the brain (HumenSciences, 2020).
Himself a cellist - he always travels with his instrument to play the Stones in classical mode to his "patients" - this cognitive psychology specialist at the University of Burgundy recommends introducing into school programs "a musical practice of two hours a week," which he said would "have a positive effect on cognitive development and academic achievement."
Frédérique Thiebault, a teacher in Dijon, plays the accordion to her kindergarten students, each of whom is entitled to "a melody for their first name". The LiveLab in Hamilton, Canada, works on cases of children who have motor problems: “When you use a metronome to let them type in rhythm, it helps their motor system to work better. »
In Lyon, we are studying a little-known phenomenon, amusia. A neurological anomaly that affects people unable to listen to music... Among these musical handicaps: the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, the writer Vladimir Nabokov or Che Guevara. Researchers at the Center for Neuroscience Research have issued a call for people who sing out of tune to come…sing – with detectors on their skulls. Superpower or not, "music is one of the characteristics that defines our humanity", summarizes Professor Robert Zatorre, at McGill University in Montreal.
