Music therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A neuroscience informed rationale for clinical practice

Abstract

In the last years, many studies in neurosciences aimed at understanding how the nervous system is structured, how it works in people with typical and atypical global development, and how music is processed as perceived stimulus and action in the word. The integration of this knowledge in music therapy clinical practice may provide new explanations about the path in which the therapeutic use of music improves health as well as assist the development of new clinical approaches for treatment, assessment and evaluation. This article presents a neuroscience rationale of a music therapy clinical practice with focus on nonverbal communication and social interaction for children and teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder.