ABSTRACT
The biorhythms of the nervous systems spontaneously entrain with external vibrations in the environment. Such external input can come from musical instruments outputting signals that we can control from the outside. By controlling those signals externally, we can steer the biorhythms of the somatic motor systems of another person and help that person self-regulate his or her self-generated motions. This chapter explores neurological music therapy as a new important avenue to help the person with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) habilitate and rehabilitate his or her self-produced biorhythms. We review the extant literature on music therapy and neurological music therapy in light of concrete examples and vignettes from our clinical practice and our basic scientific lab experiments. We provide evidence of the benefits of pairing music and movement in ASD to effortlessly retrain the tempo and rhythms of the body in motion and improve many aspects of sociomotor control.
