Music Helps People With Dementia & Alzheimer's

I’ve actually written previously about how music helps people with dementia & Alzheimer’s. I wanted to write about this new study to reinforce the impact music has on people who have these diseases.

With dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the area of the brain involved with music memory and processing are not affected until much later in the manifestation of the diseases. This means people can retain the ability to sing and even dance long after their ability to talk has diminished.

In this study by Northwestern Medicine researchers, they video recorded conversing and interacting with patients in a Memory Care facility for 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after they watched a concert where the songs that were popular in their youth were performed and sang.

The patients were also given tambourines and shakers that they could use to accompany the musicians. The performance was 45 minutes long.

The researchers compared the before and after videos and they found that after the concert the patients were more socially engaged. They had more eye contact, were less distracted, less agitated, and even had an elevated mood.

The control group that just kept receiving their daily care and programs did not show these kinds of changes.

The researchers did the concerts twelve times over three months.

Interestingly, the patient’s family and friends that were at the concerts were also affected positively by the music.

What still needs to be researched is how long does this positive change last.

S0…Beach Boys anyone, if you’re from that generation!
(Reported Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders)