HEALING DRUM CIRCLE

Drum circles.

They’re not just for Creedence Clearwater Rivival parking lots anymore!

In fact, there is an ever growing body of research pointing to the health benefits of drum circles across a wide variety of populations.

The great news is that over the past few years, we’re seeing an uptick in the number of studies coming out about how group drumming helps people.

The range of uses spans the fields of neuroscience, mental health, geriatric medicine, and substance abuse recovery to name just a few.

This is a short list (there’s much more out there!) of 10 peer-reviewed research for you for two reasons:

It’s helpful to have a few legitimate scientific factoids top of mind so that you can share them during your events. Doing so helps to shift the stereotype of drum circles away from being a “new age” or a “hippie activity” (not that there’s anything wrong with either of those!) and towards being a scientifically valid modality that has been shown to help people - and with the data to prove it.
If you work in a health, corporate or educational profession, it’s easier to get grants and other funding for instruments and training if you can show “data driven” proof of the efficacy of group drumming.

Below are 10 studies from reputable sources – mostly the National Institute of Health (https://www.nih.gov).

You’ll find studies on group music making with older adults, veterans with PTSD and other populations.

You’ll discover how rhythmic interactions bond people together, how drumming stimulates neuroplasticity in the brain and improves well-being in people with Dementia among many other benefits.

Feel free to visit the links below, share with anyone and/or copy and paste them for your needs.

Being a leader in a rhythmic interaction activates reward-related brain regions

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010218302414

Interpersonal rhythmic interaction is one of the fundamental behaviors that allow humans to socially interact with others. In this study, we provide novel neuroimaging evidence that being followed by other agents in such an interaction is pleasant for humans. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured the brain activity of 17 participants while they performed a virtual drum-hitting task, in one of the following conditions: a) alternating with a virtual agent that would always copy their hitting pace, or b) alternating with a virtual agent that would randomly hit the drum. The participants reported a significantly higher subjective feeling of being followed by the agent in the first condition. Moreover, almost all participants preferred the agent that followed their drum-hitting rhythm. The activity of the caudate nucleus, which is one of the reward-related brain structures, was found to be associated with the subjective feeling of being followed, suggesting that the sense of being the leader, in an interpersonal rhythmic interaction, creates a pleasant feeling.

Interpersonal rhythmic interaction is a fundamental social behavior.
fMRI was used to measure brain activity during an alternating drum-hitting task.
Most participants preferred the condition in which their hitting pace was copied.
The sense of being followed activates reward-related brain regions.
Being a leader in a rhythmic interaction task might be pleasant for humans.

MORE RESOURCES

Rhythm in joint action: psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms for real-time interpersonal coordination

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4240961/

Human interaction often requires simultaneous precision and flexibility in the coordination of rhythmic behaviour between individuals engaged in joint activity, for example, playing a musical duet or dancing with a partner. This review article addresses the psychological processes and brain mechanisms that enable such rhythmic interpersonal coordination. First, an overview is given of research on the cognitive-motor processes that enable individuals to represent joint action goals and to anticipate, attend and adapt to other's actions in real time. Second, the neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin rhythmic interpersonal coordination are sought in studies of sensorimotor and cognitive processes that play a role in the representation and integration of self- and other-related actions within and between individuals' brains. Finally, relationships between social–psychological factors and rhythmic interpersonal coordination are considered from two perspectives, one concerning how social-cognitive tendencies (e.g. empathy) affect coordination, and the other concerning how coordination affects interpersonal affiliation, trust and prosocial behaviour. Our review highlights musical ensemble performance as an ecologically valid yet readily controlled domain for investigating rhythm in joint action.