The human brain is among the most amazing creations in the known universe.  Though it only weighs slightly more than 1kg, it consists of over 100 Billion neurons and controls everything from movement to memory, from breathing to behaviour and from thought to emotions. When it is performing optimally, it is like the conductor of a great symphony orchestra, ensuring that every individual function is both tuneful and harmonious.  But when brain functioning is less than optimal, it becomes an impediment that could severely affect the quality of one’s life. The good news however is that the brain can respond to intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli, reorganize and rewire its neural connections, enabling it to adapt and function in ways that differ from its prior state.

While various interventions exist for improving cognitive abilities, Musopathy Aural Neural Engagement Techniques (MANET), leverages on two of them that are  foremost as evidence based approaches, namely Music (especially Rhythms) and Mathematics.  Neuroscientific research shows musical and rhythm training have a significant positive impact on cognitive development.  Similarly, there is substantial evidence vouching for the role Mathematics plays in promoting pattern recognition, mental calculations, counting, sequencing and manipulating numbers, improving reasoning, spatial visualization, stimulating neural pathways, working memory and focus, enhancing strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities and enabling critical thinking and innovativeness.  One can easily imagine the health benefits one can potentially get combining elements of both music and math. 

Road Readiness of MANET

MANET is not only a theoretical level discourse.  Over 300 MANET exercises have already been created so far for therapeutic studies and applications, targeting diverse ages, stages, capabilities and conditions of participants. Hundreds more are being developed. 

Striking Data Point

It is most significant that practitioners of Carnatic Indian Classical music who are also engaged with its alluring mathematical aspects are seldom threatened by cognitive decline or dementia even way past their 70s and some of them have shown ideal levels of mental ability and agility even past their 100th year.  While inspired by this, MANET has been studiously developed to cater to global populations and neither demands Carnatic training or imparts its artistic aspects to participants. 

Common Causes of Cognitive Issues 

Cognitive impairment involves declines in thinking, memory or reasoning skills. Common causes include: 

1. Neurological Disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, TBT or infections such as meningitis also disrupt brain function at any age 
2. Lifestyle Risks such as High blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, smoking, and high cholesterol increase vulnerability, especially with age. Physical inactivity, poor diet, chronic alcohol use, and substance abuse further contribute by impairing blood flow or causing toxicity and 
3. Temporary Factors like depression, vitamin deficiencies (e.g., B12), dehydration, sleep apnea, untreated hearing loss, medication side infections, hypothyroidism and delirium.  

But there is one factor that is as severe as all the above, though barely discussed.

Manufactured Cognitive Decline

But one of the greatest emerging global causes of Cognitive decline that is not being discussed adequately is Sensory Bombardment due to Device Addiction, spanning all generations.  While students remain the most vulnerable to this threat, millions of adults including elderly citizens have also fallen into this category.  

A highly disturbing fact is that Decreased Attention is Trending now, because numerous online platforms are promoting 15 second content, (perhaps unintentionally) causing memory and cognitive disorders across borders by suggesting shorter content to millions of viewers, who are also losing their sense of discernment to assess whether they are genuine or not, thanks to a plethora of AI generated content. 

From Cognitive Decline to Civilizational Decline

These patterns are already spiraling to a vicious cycle, infringing upon the physical, emotional and cognitive balance of the individuals. They not only result in underperformance but also sub-optimal levels of thinking and impaired decision-making abilities, not to mention emotional consequences such as stress, anxiety and depression.  In organizational settings, this can translate to huge deficits in productivity and profits. At a larger level, what starts off as cognitive decline among individuals will quickly spiral to Social Cognitive Decline and eventually to Cognitive Decline of the human species as a whole, if preemptive steps are not taken across the board immediately.

Necessity of Musopathy

Musopathy MANET and TBTs are necessities today to counter both traditional and emerging causes of cognitive dissonance. It is imperative to speedily combat the undesirable social trends and reverse both individuals and society back to at least normal levels of attentiveness, memories and cognitive abilities. MANET, along with TBT, can accomplish these given its sophisticated but non-invasive approach to engage with several areas of the brain and also address emotional issues. Timely intervention of MANET has the potential to combat or even prevent certain aspects of dementia like memory loss. MANET also is a great mood enhancer that can also combat Stress, Anxiety and Depression. In workspaces, it can be a great tool to build innovative approaches as well as team spirit.

Mechanics of MANET

MANET taps on several important aspects of highly evolved systems such as Carnatic Indian Classical, which is not only aesthetic but also draws significantly on  mathematical elements in the realm of both melody and rhythm. However, MANET does not demand knowledge of Music or a greater than elementary school level math from participants. 

In simple terms, MANET = Elements of (Music + Mathematics)

Its two main features are:  

1. Exercises based on Artistic Aural Arithmetics and Rhythms, from diverse cultures such as Indian, Western and African.
2. Exercises based on Permutations and Combinations of over 7.2 million possible scales and modes 

Both of these work in diverse ways to improve individual and collective wellbeing. MANET sessions can be given to individuals or even large groups of people. 

Singular Engagement

The most striking feature of MANET is that it engages more with the human ear and brain connect in contrast to other pattern-recognition and problem solving options (like crossword puzzles, sudoku etc) that are centered on the eye-brain coordination. It engages with several interconnected parts of the brain including the auditory cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum, various motor and frontal regions and prefrontal cortex etc as also anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and other frontal regions that are involved in grasping, memorising and creative innovations. Since rhythmic aspects also involve motor functions, MANET also engages with parts such as Primary Motor Cortex, Premotor Cortex, Supplementary Motor Area and Basal Ganglia. In summation,  MANET is a multi-sensory cognitive workout with numerous advantages.

Benefits 

MANET fosters both linear and lateral thinking and offers numerous benefits including: 

• Improved cognitive skills 
• Enhanced creativity and innovativeness 
• Building decision making and leadership abilities
• Improved motor functions
• Mood improvement 
• Fostering Team spirit 
• Combating Depression and other emotional disorders
• Prevention or management of cognitive decline 
• Improving memory functions and preventing and/or delaying Dementia

Characteristics

• Like every aspect of Musopathy, there is no knowledge of or inclination towards Music that are required from participants.
• Anyone with basic intelligence and elementary knowledge of Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication can benefit from this.  
• MANET enables participants to increase their mental awareness, alertness and cognitive abilities by engaging with a substantial portion of their brain that they would otherwise not tend to use. 
• Some of these approaches leverage on permutations and combinations of sequential rhythmic patterns in a logically and mathematically justifiable manner especially seen in Indian Carnatic Classical Rhythms. 
• Participants in such Musopathy interventions will be engaged in pattern recognition but also in mathematically decoding simple patterns or coming up with other ways to express the same set of patterns or creating new patterns using similar concepts. 

Why is MANET a Necessity for the elderly?

Cognitive Scaffolding (temporary support and guidance provided to a learner by a more knowledgeable individual like a teacher) through interventions MANET has extra relevance for elderly populations because of the following reasons:

• Cognitive decline in aging populations is a serious global issue. 
• By the late 2070s, the global population aged 65 and older is projected to reach 2.2 billion, surpassing the number of children under age 18. 
• By the mid-2030s, there will be 265 million individuals aged 80 and older, outnumbering infants. 
• Even rapidly growing nations will experience a rise in the elderly population over the next 30 years. 
• Current knowledge about normal aging and changes in memory identify a divide between memory tasks that are unaffected by aging and those that are. 
• Among the unaffected are recognition tasks. These memory tasks rely on accessing well-known information, often include environmental support, and tend to be automatic. 
• A common complaint in older adults is trouble with their memory, especially for new information. Negative age effects on memory are often observed at both encoding and during recall. Older adults often have difficulty with recall tasks, particularly those that require effortful self-initiated processing, episodic memory and retention of information about contextual cues.