WhoWhatWhy: “Nothing brings out the grinch in some like the early debut of seasonal music when the season hasn’t even started. Reactions can of course go the other way — people weep with joy at memories attached to a song from their past. Whatever the reaction, music is powerful. Now, a small company in Massachusetts is trying to harness that power to help people with traumatic brain injuries talk again. And scientists say music is actually rewiring patients’ brains. It is well documented that those with Alzheimer’s disease can benefit from hearing and singing songs they remember from earlier in life — but research into music’s ability to create new pathways in the brain to combat impairment of language abilities (aphasia), hemineglect, and loss of movement is relatively new. Hemineglect is when brain trauma leads patients to lose the ability to pay attention to one side of space. For example, ask them to draw a clock face and they will only draw half of it, ignoring the other side and leaving it completely blank. The branch of rehabilitation called Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) helps patients who have suffered terrible brain injuries regain function — through singing and playing percussive instruments…”