25-02-2025
Learn pain-relieving potential for dance, music, more from FAU neuroscience experts
When Dr. Jill Sonke first witnessed the potential pain-relieving power of the neuroarts, she was still in high school — and the term 'neuroarts' had yet to be coined.
At the time, Sonke was an accomplished gymnast and dancer as a youth. A friend who was a singer had suffered second- and third-degree burns on her hand after a tea-making accident — and would require weeks of painful dressing changes.
'A few months earlier, I had given her a Joni Mitchell cassette tape,' explained Sonke. 'While she was in the hospital and going through very painful dressing changes and debridement procedures, she would play the tape, volume turned up, and sing at the top of her lungs. As she later described it to me, she transcended and survived her pain by singing. As an artist, that made perfect sense to me.'
And it would be among the initial experiences that, decades ago, led Sonke to become one of the pioneering experts in how to use the neuroarts for improvement in all aspects of life — especially one's health.
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Today Sonke is a research professor and director of Research Initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida. And on Monday, she will be the guest of honor at a free symposium, "The Power of Arts & Science for Resiliency in Aging,' at Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. The symposium is a collaboration of the Jupiter-based Mind, Music, and Movement Foundation for Neurological Disorders and FAU's Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute.
"We are honored to host Dr. Jill Sonke, whose pioneering work in arts in medicine exemplifies the profound impact of creative expression on health and resilience," said Mind, Music, and Movement Foundation founder Beth Elgort. The aim of the annual event in its third year is to share neuroscience breakthroughs and offer opportunities for interactive demonstrations.
Sonke will be one of a half-dozen panelists making presentations. Others include local neuroscience experts as well as those with experience in caring for folks as they age.
Sonke's friend from high school was able to shift her state of consciousness and transcend the pain by singing. The singing wasn't merely a distraction: Science tells us that various arts can be an avenue to changing what's going on in the body and brain.
"The fact is, we have limited cognitive capacity ― we can only pay attention to so much at one time," said Sonke. So when your brain is focusing on a mental or physical activity, it has less ability to focus on pain.
Sonke also first experienced what experts call "transcendence" in her teens, as a competitive gymnast.
"One day when I was in my junior year of high school, a dancer came into the gym to help with our floor exercise routines,' recalled Sonke. 'As she guided us, I found myself absorbed and lost in movement in a way I had never experienced. I felt a kind of energy and elation I had never felt. Although I didn't know the words or what they meant, I was experiencing both transcendence (a shift in my state of consciousness) and self-transcendence (an expansion of my conceptual boundaries). I knew I wanted to have that experience every day for the rest of my life. It was my first life epiphany.'
However, she says that she didn't really think about transcendence or self-transcendence again until years later when, in 1994, she became a dancer in residence with the University of Florida Health Shands Arts in Medicine program.
'As a member of the hospital staff, I worked on the bone marrow transplant and pediatrics units, dancing with patients. Nurses and doctors wrote referrals for me to see their patients when they felt that the patients could benefit from movement or creative engagement,' she explained.
That, she said, was when 'I really saw, through working with patients and delving into research, that arts engagement can make real changes in our brains and bodies. When we engage with the arts — either actively or receptively — we can experience a range of physiological and hormonal responses.'
Among those responses, are a heightened flow of positive hormones — endorphins (our body's natural painkillers), dopamine (which elicits a feeling of joy when we anticipate or experience a reward), serotonin (a mood regulator and natural antidepressant that also heightens our sense of self-esteem) and oxytocin (our 'bonding' hormone) — as well as a reduction in the stress hormone cortisol, she said.
Sonke will discuss how we can all reach the 'flow state'— which she explained is 'a state of consciousness in which our awareness is highly focused on the present moment and on the activity at hand. Flow state is a merging of action and awareness and often results in a sense of euphoria as well as a suspended awareness of time, or the sense that 'time flies.''
Two decades ago when Sonke needed back-to-back eye surgeries performed on the same day, she made music part of her treatment in between procedures.
'The day came, and the musicians — two guitarists — entered my room as I rested after the first surgery,' said Sonke. 'They asked if I had any requests but I didn't, so they chose two songs: 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' by John Denver and The Beatles' 'Here Comes the Sun.' As I listened, they transformed that moment of anxiety and pain into a moment of beauty and bliss. Tears flowed, not because I was afraid or in pain, but because I was wonderfully overwhelmed by the beauty of the music and the gift of presence, connection, and caring that the artists brought.'
Sonke says both her own personal experience as well as the countless patients she's seen the arts benefit are the reasons why 'why medicine needs the arts. Art can't replace medicine. Art doesn't cure diseases. But artists are important members of our inter-profession healthcare teams.'
If you go
What: "The Power of Arts & Science for Resiliency in Aging'
Where: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Florida Atlantic University, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter
When: 5 p.m. Monday, March 3
Admission: The symposium is free but registration is required.
Info:
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Experts explain how neuroarts provide natural pain relief and other health benefits at FAU event
