https://weareallmusic.org/using-music-to-help-unlock-alzheimers-patients-memories/In reflecting on Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness month (June), we at WAAM are excited by the research being done on the modality of music therapy as it relates to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Based on the studies we highlight in our Music Impact Research Center (MIRC), there is mounting evidence that music can help alleviate emotional, psychological, and cognitive symptoms and support quality of life for people living with these conditions.
As one study puts it, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) “is one of the greatest health challenges of this century for humanity.” That’s a powerful statement.
And it’s no wonder: the impact that cognitive decline has on a person and their loved ones and caregivers is immeasurable.
And in tangible terms, the figures are staggering. As of 2010, the total estimated worldwide cost of dementia was $604 billion, according to a report by Alzheimer’s Disease International, which said, “If dementia care were a country, it would be the world’s 18th largest economy.”
And considering the rate at which Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed—nearly 10 million new cases per year worldwide, of which 60-70% are Alzheimer’s diagnoses, according to the World Health Organization—“non-pharmacological treatments play a more and more important role in preventing and relieving symptoms.”
According to the researchers, music therapy, alongside medication and other treatments, can act as an intervention for AD that is easy to implement with no side effects, and the study links to dozens of references in support of their thesis.
In addition to studies, our MIRC contains articles that highlight music’s impact on the world. One in particular features moving stories that provide evidence of the profound effects music can have on the brain, principally on memory and mood, for those who live with AD and dementia.
One story beautifully describes how music breathed new life into people who “before the music started, would not have been able to recall the names of family members or the career they had pursued for 40 years—or been able to break free of the inward-turning silence in which the disease had wrapped them.” People who were “restored for the time being to a sense of self through the activation of better-preserved neural networks.”
Another article also discusses neural networks and the types of memory involved in the retention and recollection of music. It helps explain the music “time machine” people experience when hearing a familiar tune—and how people with AD and dementia can still go back to those times, and the effect on their memory is even stronger than if they experience “familiar faces or other stimuli.”
Some major points for music, in my mind.
Read the study here: https://weareallmusic.org/using-music-to-help-unlock-alzheimers-patients-memories/
WAAM’s ever-growing MIRC is a collection of third-party research that has been vetted by our team as credible and significant with regard to music’s influence on three major impact areas: health and wellbeing, education, and socioeconomics. This research not only helps to raise awareness of the many benefits music has on society, but it also informs our partnerships, grant giving, and funding for future music-related research and resources. Learn more about how you can support our mission.
Related posts:
National Coffee Day: Thank You Red House Roasters!
WAAM is excited to welcome Kim Sabo Flores, PhD, to our next Power of Music Episode!
ETM’s 2023 Gala
We Are All Music Foundation (WAAM) Announces Inaugural “Power Of Music” Benefit Concert, Presented by Wells Fargo Advisors, at New York City’s The Cutting Room.
