Music is associated with reduced pain, anxiety, and sedative requirements in ICU patients. Slow-tempo music (60 to 80 beats per minute) in particular has been associated with a neuromodulatory effect. The minimum duration of music listening associated with decreased pain may be as brief as 20 to 30 minutes, resulting in a nearly 2-point decrease in self-reported pain scores (on a 0-10 scale). Longer duration of music listening (i.e., more than 45 minutes) is associated with improved sleep quality and less depressive symptoms after critical illness. Through its interaction with various cortical areas, music may also offer beneficial effects on cognition. Neurocognitive processing of music invokes brain centers related to emotion, perception, cognition, and the autonomic nervous system. In EEG and functional MRI studies, music increased communication between the functional neural networks typically disrupted in delirium and dementia. Whether music listening in ICU patients with delirium can improve long-term cognitive function is not clearly understood but is being evaluated in randomized controlled trials. Ongoing clinical and scientific work will lay the groundwork to identify the neuroprotective mechanisms by which music may reduce the risk of ICU delirium and long-term cognitive impairments.

Chapter 5: Neurocognitive Processing and Reading Ability. This chapter examines the relationship between neurological processing and reading comprehension. Over the past twenty years, there has been an increasing connection between real-time behavioral language (and reading) processing and newer perspectives on neurolinguistic processing. In order to provide an introductory overview, the chapter first described the key physiological features of language in the brain. The goal is to connect neurological processes and cognitive-behavioral research on reading comprehension. Both cortical and sub-cortical contributions are addressed as is the recent turn to networks and pathways (the connectome). The chapter also describes the various measurement methods for examining neurological processing (fMRI, ERP, PET, DTI, TMS, MEG). The chapter also notes distinct, but very similar, language processing when engaged in L2 reading. The last major section focuses more specifically on ERP and fMRI research studies, involving both L1 and L2 reading. This chapter does not note implications for instruction.