August 2, 2008 - World Congress & Music and Neurosciences

This week Robert Krout called in to tell us about the 12th World Congress on Music Therapy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Krystal Demaine shared her experiences at the Neurosciences and Music conference in Montreal.

The World Federation of Music Therapy, Incorporated (WFMT) is the only international organization dedicated to the development and promotion of music therapy world wide and was established at the 5th World Congress of Music Therapy in Genoa Italy, in 1985. The principal objective of the WFMT is to act as the International Organization for the profession of music therapy.

The main theme of the Neurosciences and Music conference is research on interactions between music and the human brain in healthy and pathologic conditions. The conference focused on many topics such as: the importance of music in the biologic and cultural evolution of man, differences between musicians trained at an early or late age, congenital amusia, absolute pitch, the relationship between the study of music and intellectual abilities in children, musical abilities in behavioural disorders and genetic syndromes, music perception in cochlear implant patients, dystonias in musicians, the effectiveness of music as a means to reduce the perception of pain, and music rehabilitation. The event is mostly targeted to medical professionals, neuroscientists, neurologists, psychologists, educators, music therapists, musicologists, and sound engineers.

To learn more about these conferences, listen here.