ACADEMIC INNOVATIONS Institute Probes Music's Therapeutic Potential M.J. Friedrich T HE HEALING QUALITIES OF MUSIC have been appreciated since an- cient times. Today, music con- tinues to occupy a therapeutic niche in a range of settings and is gaining rec- ognition as a valuable complement to conventional medical treatment in a number of areas, such as relieving pain during childbirth (Pain Manag Nun. 2003;4:54-61). Rigorous evaluation of such effects is needed to ensure that music is used most effectively in patient care. Such an ef- fort is one of the aims of neurologist Mark Jude Tramo, MD, PhD, founder and director of the Institute for Music and Brain Science at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. Throughout his ca- reer, Tramo has used music as a lens to examine brain function. He envisions the nascent institute as an entity that will bring a multidisciplinary perspective to research on how the auditory cortex functions—not only to gain insight into fundamental auditory processes, but also to apply that insight to such problems as hearing loss and brain damage. LAYING GROUNDWORK Tramo has spent the last 2 years lay- ing the groundwork for the institute's activities. The group currently in- cludes a number of investigators affili- ated with Harvard Medical School. But a host of researchers with different areas of expertise will be required to fulfill the institute's goal of finding out "how music is understood by the brain, from the single cell on up to global process- ing" and applying that knowledge clinically, said Nicholas Zervas, MD, professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and an executive board member of the institute. Accordingly, the institute is ex- pected to draw from the large commu- nity of research scientists, clinicians, and other experts in the Boston area who are involved in auditory-related studies, from the very technical to more cognitive and therapeutic areas. A center such as this, said Z