Can music therapy alleviate psychological, cognitive ad behavioral impairment in epilepsy?

It is well- known that the burden of epilepsy is provoked not only by the type and severity of the seizures and chronic pharmacological therapies, but also by an array of cognitive and psycho-behavioural problems that contribute in reducing quality of life and persist even after seizure control. Music activity and music therapy techniques showed significant effects on psychological, behavioral and cognitive aspects in many neurological disorders. Nevertheless, music therapy has been not applied in the field of epilepsy as a therapeutic-rehabilitative technique. The brain circuitry of music involves different neural systems in the temporal and frontal lobes, which are also implied in executive functions, language, memory and ToM. In our opinion the sharing of neural networks that support music processing and production and other cognitive functions suggest that music therapy may help to attenuate cognitive deficits, in particular those caused by epilepsy. The positive impact of music and music therapy on psychological well-being, interpersonal relationships, and quality of life could be also translated in epilepsy. We hope that, considering the above mentioned aspects, music therapy could be also included in rehabilitative programs in epilepsy, contributing to alleviate the psychological, behavioral and cognitive impairment. Evidence-based research projects using well-designed music therapy methods are needed to verify this hypothesis