Synchronizing the Symphony: Does Rhythm Heal the Brain?

Rhythm is not merely a feature of music. Rather, it is a fundamental organizing principle of biological systems. From the oscillatory firing of individual neurons to the large-scale synchrony of distributed brain networks, the brain is, at its core, a rhythmic organ. When those rhythms break down, so does function: disrupted oscillatory dynamics underlie depression, schizophrenia, and other psychiatric conditions. This talk explores how sound and rhythm offer a conceptual bridge between the acoustic sciences and the neurosciences. Drawing on work in transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and related non-invasive brain stimulation modalities, this talk explores how targeting the brain's intrinsic rhythms has transformed into a clinically promising frontier in psychiatric treatment.