Disorders of consciousness (DOC) is a term which includes the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and the minimally conscious state. As musical activities have been associated with a range of psychological and physical benefits, this systematic review was designed to better understand the effects of music therapy on patients with DOC.

The medical literature was reviewed for publications up until 2017. Studies chosen involved quantitative empirical research focusing on adult patients with neurogenic DOC receiving musicbased interventions. The results were reviewed for a total of 329 participants, with a median of 9.5 patients per study. The subjects were exposed to either recorded or live music. Independent measures included behavioral, physiological and brain imaging data.

Music interventions were found to be associated with enhanced arousal, and or activation, changes in cardiac activity, oxygen saturation, temperature and respiration frequency. Studies found that improved behaviors included turning of the body toward the sound source, reduced psychomotor agitation, change in glance direction or facial expression, increased visual fixation, increased blink rate, deeper breathing, movement of the extremities and production of sounds. Brain measurement studies found an increase in functional brain connectivity, and an increase in metabolic brain activity.

This systematic review of patients with disorders of consciousness found that music interventions are associated with favorable behavioral and physiologic responses.