By Dr. Mercola
Music predates language and speaks to us on a primal level. Thinking
back to your adolescence, you probably associate key memories with the
soundtracks that played during these formative years.
Before this, music likely began shaping your reality during infancy —
there’s even evidence that babies respond to music while still in the
womb. At the other end of the spectrum, elderly people, too, including
those struggling with degenerative conditions, come alive again when
they hear their favorite tunes.
“What is it about music that moves us so intensely and directly, and
how can it be employed in the treatment of neurological and physical
disorders?” Such are the questions answered and explored in the above
documentary, “Music on the Brain.”
Miraculous Results Simply by Sharing Music With Dementia Patients
In the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia,
patients often become moody and withdrawn. They may forget events as
well as their own personal history, leading to a loss of identity and
self.
The simple act of listening to music may help people with Alzheimer’s
to reconnect with the people around them and even remember past life
events, which is why the non-profit organization Music & Memory has
made this their mission.
The organization works with nursing home staff and elder care
professionals, along with family caregivers, to create and provide
personalized music playlists using digital audio systems like iPods to
people with dementia.
When executive director Dan Cohen first thought of the idea in 2006,
he was surprised that none of the 16,000 long-term care facilities in
the U.S. used iPods for their residents.1
He spearheaded efforts to change that, and today personalized music
programs are available in thousands of nursing homes and other
facilities in the U.S., Canada, Europe and beyond.
In the video below you can see a clip of nursing-home resident Henry,
who was “reawakened” by listening to his favorite musical artist, Cab
Calloway.
As Music & Memory put it, “These musical favorites tap deep memories
not lost to dementia and can bring participants back to life, enabling
them to feel like themselves again, to converse, socialize and stay
present … The results can be nothing short of miraculous.”2 The video below speaks for itself.
Personalized Music May Reduce Agitation and Use of Drugs in Alzheimer’s Patients
It’s interesting to note that some of music’s benefits appear to be
rooted in its familiarity. That is, a person’s favorite music or songs
they associate with important events can trigger a memory of the song’s
lyrics, the related event and even the feelings and experience of it.
In many cases, listening to individualized music appears to be more effective than listening to a random song.
In one study of 39 people in a long-term care facility in Iowa, for
example, listening to individualized music led to a significant
reduction in agitation (such as anxiety,
shouting and irritability) both during and after the session — more so
than occurred when residents listened to generic classical relaxation
music.3
Other research has shown individualized music may calm agitated patients and lead to significantly lower anxiety scores.4
The success of the technique depends on nursing staff being able to
figure out a patient’s musical preferences, which is why you may want to
ask your aging relatives about their favorite songs now (or relay yours
to your caregivers) just in case.
It’s also dependent on a person’s interest in music throughout life.
You needn’t be overly musical to appreciate music emotionally, as
virtually everyone does, but as written in the World Journal of
Psychiatry (WJP):5
“ … [I]t would not be appropriate for a person who did not have
an appreciation for music prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. A
positive correlation is expected between the degree of significance that
music had in the person’s life prior to the onset of dementia and
effectiveness of the intervention.”
However, listening to music is a simple, inexpensive and risk-free intervention that has the potential to benefit many.
The response from nursing homes that have implemented Music &
Memory’s individualized music program has been overwhelmingly positive,
with many even reporting reduced drug use as a result. Margaret Rivers
of Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital & Nursing Facility in New York
City told Music & Memory:6
“One of the more positive results we’re seeing is a reduction in
the need for psychotropic medication. Music soothes the residents to the
point where they actually may not need all of the medications that they
needed prior to going on [Music & Memory’s] program.”
Familiar Songs May Help Alzheimer’s Patients Recall Memories
When you listen to music, a broad range of neural networks become
engaged, including those linked to autobiographical memories and
emotions.7
The brain region behind your forehead, known as the medial prefrontal
cortex, is one of the last to atrophy among Alzheimer’s patients; it’s
also the hub that music activates.
Petr Janata, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at University
of California (UC) Davis’ Center for Mind and Brain, conducted a study
to map the brain activity of subjects as they listened to music. He said
in a press release:8
“What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as
a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head.
It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might
all of a sudden see that person’s face in your mind’s eye … Now we can
see the association between those two things — the music and the
memories.”
Janata is among those who believe providing Alzheimer’s patients with
digital music players and customized playlists could improve their
quality of life. In some cases it may also help them to share those
memories as well.
When Alzheimer's patients sat in rooms filled with music and were asked
to tell a story about their life, their stories contained more
meaningful words, were more grammatically complex, and conveyed more
information (per number of words) than stories told in a silent room.9
The findings suggest that exposure to music may help people with
Alzheimer's disease to overcome neurolinguistic limitations. This makes
sense, the study's co-author noted, because "music and language
processing share a common neural basis."10
In the video below, the late Dr. Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author
of “Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain,” explained how listening
to familiar music may allow Alzheimer’s patients to access personal
memories that have otherwise become inaccessible.
Your Brain Is Hard-Wired to Respond to Music
Music on the Brain discusses that music may have evolved from an
earlier form of emotional communication, an emotional proto-language of
the sort you may hear between a mother and a baby. Tone of voice and
pitch are incredibly important before language emerges, and it’s thought
this early form of communication eventually split into language, which
conveys more information, and music, which conveys emotion.
When you hear music, many areas of your brain light up. Music triggers
activity in the nucleus accumbens, a part of your brain that releases
the feel-good chemical dopamine and is involved in forming expectations.
At the same time, the amygdala, which is involved in processing emotion,
and the prefrontal cortex, which makes possible abstract
decision-making, are also activated.11
Meanwhile, oxytocin, the bonding hormone that’s released when we
interact with our loved ones, is also released by music, specifically by
singing together.12
Many evolutionary biologists believe that music was fundamental in our
ability to function as humans and hold together large communities of
people, as music is capable of producing oxytocin, i.e., bonding and
sharing emotions, on a massive scale.
Music Helps People With Parkinson’s Disease Move More Freely
Even brain areas that control movement are affected by music. This may
seem strange until you consider that movement, such as drumming, was
once essential to creating music. Today, music is now being used to help
people with diseases like Parkinson’s to move more freely.
Slowness, tremor, stiffness and impaired balance are common in
Parkinson’s patients, but emerging research suggests music may be an
effective non-drug intervention.13
People who ordinarily are unable to control their movements are
suddenly able to follow the beat of a song and dance. The music seems to
provide an external rhythm that bypasses the malfunctioning signals in
the brain.
A variety of neurological disorders have shown improvement from
music-based interventions, including not only Parkinson’s disease but
also multiple sclerosis and stroke. In fact, music-based interventions
had similar or greater effects than conventional rehabilitation on upper
limb function, mobility and cognition among people with neurological
disorders.14
Music Opens a Back Door for Memory Recall in Your Brain
By tapping areas of your brain linked to both emotions and memory, music
can act as a back door to help you access past events that would
otherwise be lost. As Music & Memory put it:15
“Even for persons with severe dementia, music can tap deep emotional
recall. For individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s, memory for things —
names, places [and] facts — is compromised, but memories from our
teenage years can be well-preserved.
Favorite music or songs associated with important personal events
can trigger memory of lyrics and the experience connected to the music.
Beloved music often calms chaotic brain activity and enables the
listener to focus on the present moment and regain a connection to
others.
Persons with dementia, Parkinson’s and other diseases that damage
brain chemistry also reconnect to the world and gain improved quality of
life from listening to personal music favorites.”
If you’re a caregiver to someone with dementia, creating a personalized
playlist for him or her is a simple way to help them reconnect with the
outside world and feel like themselves again, even for a little while.
On a larger scale, if you have a loved one in a nursing home, you may
want to suggest they consider the use of individualized music for their
residents. Music & Memory also accepts donations of gently used
Apple music players, including iPods, iPhones or iPads. If you have one
you’re no longer using, consider donating it to this worthwhile cause.16
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