How principles of cross-modal correspondence and personalization are being leveraged to create adaptive systems for health-tech are explored, including closed-loop neurofeedback for neuromodulation, smart keyboards for motor rehabilitation using biofeedback, and AI-driven analysis of musical improvisation for mental health assessment.
Abstract
This article synthesizes contemporary research on the multifaceted impacts of piano interaction on human cognition, mental health, and neural processes, and explores its translation into intelligent human-computer systems. Evidence from clinical psychology demonstrates that structured piano training can significantly alleviate anxiety and depression in the elderly, enhance executive functions and working memory in aging populations, and serve as an effective component within multi-element interventions for severe mental illness, as exemplified by the GET UP PIANO trial. Neuroscientific investigations reveal that these benefits are supported by a specialized auditory-motor network, encompassing premotor and parietal cortices, which exhibits significant plasticity in experts and is engaged during both music perception and mental imagery. Unique patterns of musical processing in special populations, such as preserved fronto-temporal connectivity for song in autism spectrum disorder, provide a neurobiological rationale for music-based therapies. Critically, these findings are now informing the development of intelligent technologies. We explore how principles of cross-modal correspondence and personalization are being leveraged to create adaptive systems for health-tech, including closed-loop neurofeedback for neuromodulation, smart keyboards for motor rehabilitation using biofeedback, and AI-driven analysis of musical improvisation for mental health assessment. Finally, the review addresses key challenges, including the need for methodological standardization, mechanistic elucidation, and ethical HCI design focused on data security and long-term engagement. The convergence of neuroscience, clinical practice, and technology positions the piano as a powerful and evolving interface for enhancing human health and cognitive resilience.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasingly recognized as a lifespan neurodevelopmental condition. Because musical perception and production engage auditory, attentional, motor, emotional, and regulatory systems simultaneously, music-based interventions have emerged as promising complementary approaches for ADHD. However, their underlying neurophysiological and systemic biological correlates remain insufficiently understood. This mini review synthesizes evidence on behavioral, neurophysiological, and biological effects of music-based interventions in ADHD using a narrative approach. Current evidence suggests that music-based interventions may influence domains related to attention, impulse control, emotional regulation, and broader behavioral functioning. Neurophysiological findings indicate potential effects on auditory processing, interhemispheric synchronization, and cortical oscillatory activity, as demonstrated using MRI, MEG, and EEG. Preliminary systemic biological findings further suggest modulation of stress-related and autonomic processes, including cortisol, serotonin, heart rate, blood pressure, and heart-rate variability. Importantly, almost all studies identified in this review were conducted in children and adolescents, despite ADHD being increasingly recognized as a lifespan condition. Consequently, the generalizability of current findings to adults with ADHD remains uncertain. Furthermore, the available evidence base is limited by small sample sizes, inconsistent reporting standards, multimodal intervention designs, and insufficient control of medication effects. Overall, music-based interventions represent a promising but still insufficiently characterized approach for ADHD. Future research should integrate behavioral, neurophysiological, and biological outcomes within adequately powered, mechanistically informed, and developmentally sensitive study designs to clarify therapeutic mechanisms and clinical relevance across the lifespan.
Michaela M. Zrelski, Bettina L. Serrallach, Christine Groß· Frontiers in Psychiatry· 0 citations
ABSTRACT Aim As the cornerstone of cognition, emotion, and social well‐being, brain health faces escalating threats from aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and sedentary lifestyles. Non‐pharmacological interventions have attracted growing interest owing to their favorable safety profiles and potential for widespread implementation. This review aims to examine the individual and synergistic effects of music and exercise on brain health. Methods This narrative review integrates literature identified through searches of PubMed and Web of Science using terms related to music, exercise or physical activity, and brain health and offers a concept‐driven synthesis of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms and potential combined effects. Findings Music modulates neurotransmitters and neural oscillations via reward and emotion networks, while exercise enhances neuroplasticity by improving energy metabolism, neurotrophic signaling, and cerebrovascular function. Their potential synergistic interaction may arise from music's capacity to temporally structure and modulate the neurochemical and metabolic states induced by exercise. Combined interventions may further enhance synaptic plasticity and network integration by mitigating neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. They may offer additional benefits for cognition, mood, and motor control beyond either intervention alone. Dance, a prototypical integration of music and movement, activates multisensory and social networks and has shown potential benefits in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, and autism. Conclusion Music and exercise may engage convergent and potentially interacting mechanisms, including neuroplasticity, metabolic regulation, and neuroinflammatory modulation, forming an integrated framework for brain health. Dance exemplifies this music–movement integration by engaging multisensory and socio‐emotional networks, highlighting its translational potential for promoting brain function.
Sanxia Yang, Qing-Luan Liu, Minghui Wang et al.· Brain and Behavior· 0 citations
The built environment is not neutral, it actively shapes human experience, behavior, and emotional regulation. For neurodivergent adults, particularly those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), traditional spaces often present significant physical and sensory barriers. This study aims to analyze how non-adapted environments, characterized by sensory overload, inadequate lighting, and high noise levels, act as factors of exclusion and cognitive fatigue. Methodologically, a narrative literature review was conducted, focusing on the intersection of Environmental Psychology, Neuroarchitecture, and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) in adulthood. The results indicate that ocularcentric and hyper-stimulating designs in corporate, residential, and academic settings exacerbate attentional fatigue, trigger severe emotional crises (meltdowns and shutdowns), and restrict the autonomy of neuroatypical individuals. It is concluded that incorporating sensory accessibility and salutogenic design principles is crucial to foster inclusion, preserve mental health, and promote independence during adulthood.
Thais Veloso dos Santos, Rodrigo da Silva Dulizio, Gabriela Costa Alves· Revista de Estudos Interdisc...· 0 citations
Evidence suggests that while AI tools can temporarily reduce symptoms and improve accessibility to professional help for mild to moderate conditions, they are less effective in cases of severe or complex disorders.
Nan-Xi Zhang· Theoretical and Natural Scie...· 0 citations
This article presents a compiled interview with three researchers in the field of multisensory integration, with an emphasis on how multisensory integration may go awry in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Through structured dialogue, the authors reflect on the origins of the field, the development of key empirical and computational frameworks, and the growing relevance of multisensory science for understanding autism, schizophrenia, dyslexia, and related conditions. The discussion highlights the shift from descriptive accounts of multisensory phenomena toward normative models, including maximum likelihood estimation, causal inference, and correlation detection, as well as the need to link these computations to neural circuits and clinical heterogeneity. The authors consider ongoing challenges in the field, including inconsistent findings across clinical studies, limited statistical power, difficulties in defining and measuring multisensory function, and the need for larger, better-characterized cohorts. They also discuss emerging directions, including naturalistic paradigms, adaptive coding, open and team science, precision psychiatry, and the application of artificial intelligence to complex multimodal datasets. The interview concludes by emphasizing the promise of multisensory integration as a framework for understanding perception, cognition, and belief updating in health and disease.
Sophie Molholm, Jean-Paul Noel, Mark T. Wallace· Multisensory Research· 0 citations
Music engages an unusually distributed set of cortical and subcortical systems, spanning auditory, motor, limbic and prefrontal territories, and has therefore become a widely used model for studying perception, prediction, reward and experience-dependent plasticity in the human brain. Over the past two decades, neuroimaging, electrophysiological and genetic methods have converged to describe how the brain encodes melody, harmony and rhythm, how listening to preferred music engages corticostriatal reward circuitry, and how sustained musical training reshapes auditory, motor and interoceptive networks. This critical narrative review synthesises evidence from cognitive, developmental, clinical and cross-cultural neuroscience to evaluate the strength, consistency and limitations of current knowledge on the effects of music on brain activity. The review examines four broad areas: the neural architecture of music perception and its formulation within predictive-coding accounts; the reward and emotional response to music and its individual variability; structural and functional plasticity associated with musical training, including the persistently contested question of transfer to non-musical cognition; and the translation of auditory-motor and reward mechanisms into neurorehabilitation for Parkinson's disease, post-stroke aphasia and motor impairment, and dementia-related agitation. Genetic, developmental and cross-cultural findings are integrated to indicate that musicality reflects a highly polygenic and only partially culture-general trait. Across these domains, the literature shows areas of convergent, replicated evidence, particularly for auditory-motor coupling and mesolimbic reward engagement, alongside areas of unresolved disagreement, most notably the magnitude and generalisability of cognitive transfer from musical training and the mechanistic basis of neurorehabilitative benefit. Methodological constraints common to the field, including modest sample sizes, heterogeneous outcome measures and inconsistent control conditions, are shown to limit the strength of causal inference that can currently be drawn. The review concludes that music exerts measurable and mechanistically plausible effects on brain structure, function and behaviour, but that confidence in specific causal claims varies substantially across sub-domains and warrants more cautious interpretation than is often conveyed in secondary literature.
Nikita Joshi, H. Sharma· Advances in Research· 0 citations
