The Musical Neurons

Preface.- Introduction.- Music for brain pleasure.- Colored notes: physiological and pathological features.- Music and creativity: the auditory mirror system as a link between emotions and musical cognition.- The history of rhythm.- Music as sleep aid .- Music in Dementia: from impairmet in musical recognition to musical interventions.- Treating Parkinson's disease; the role of musicotherapy.- It thrills my soul to hear the song: musicolepsia.- Music and semiotic.- Flute and other musical instruments.- Neurological diseases in popular music.- Conclusions.

Dr. Bruno Colombo is a board cerified Neurologist with a passionate interest in headache management and patient care. He is founder both of the Italian Neurological Association for the Research on Headache (ANIRCEF) and the Italian Foundation for Headache (FICEF), and currently serves on the board of Directors. He has authored and co-authored 200 articles on peer-reviewed journals and also authored three books.

He has served as Clinical Assistant and Research Worker at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and Institute of Neurology, London. He is Currently Coordinator and Responsible of the Headache Center at Vita-Salute University, San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. He is academic and tutor in neurology at Vita-Salute University and lecturer at Master on Headache at Biomedical Campus in Rome.As a musician was first attracted to classical music and progressive rock. At his later teens arrived, Dr. Colombo picked up an interest in jazz music. By the time he began attending Civic School of Music in Milan expanding his listening and playing scope into various jazz forms. Accomplished on guitar and bass, was also adept in drums and percussions. During this time he played around locally semipro with avant-garde jazz combos. Attracted to contemporary music in adulthood he became interested especially in the theories of composer John Cage. At the same time he presented programs for several radio stations considering a broad range of topics: jazz. Rock, popular and contemporary music



During his time at University of Milan he first began music criticism, writing record reviews and cultural commentaries for music magazines. He is actually involved both in promoting the study of popular music with an historical perspective, and in studying neural correlates of consonace and dissonance.