Multimodal imagery in music: Active ingredients and mechanisms underlying musical engagement

Clinicians and researchers have provided strong evidence for the efficacy of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) and similar therapies across a wide range of clinical conditions. What is still lacking is a theoretical framework that would allow identification of the ‘active ingredients’ in this process. This paper seeks to introduce a new systemic framework for investigating such therapies by examining the biological roots as well as the role of music in the regulation of individual and social life to maintain homeostasis via multimodality by means of arousal, imagery, attentional engagement, emotion, memory and analogous processes. Taking the work of Edelman, Damasio and other leaders of modern neuroscience as a point of departure, homeostasis and multimodality are presented as essential not only to the human life process in terms of our active mental life but also to the fullness of Edelman's "primary consciousness" and Damasio's "core self." The implications of these intricate cross-connections are considered as well as the unique propensity for music to spontaneously and multimodally engage these connections. Proposals to evaluate these ideas and stimulate further research in both basic science and clinical practice are made.

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