Category Archives: Music

Dance for Parkinson's, Drumming, Music, Parkinson's, Research , , Leave a comment

Almost let these references get away

by

Some recent articles about music and dance – thought I had already published this – it appears not. Either that, or I’m more cognitively impaired than I thought I was. If this keeps up, I’ll have normal intelligence:

Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins 

Acronym is DOSE, and it’s a short article talking about how dance is good for you because it releases several different hormones and neurotransmitters – and not just because it makes you feel good – but because it does….😎

Language of music and psychophysical foundations  

from the abstract: “Application of music in rehabilitation medicine requires an understanding of the mechanisms of music perception. This article discusses differences in character of the basic melodic elements and addresses some of the specifics of tonal space. Colloquially, music is called the language of emotion. Bearing in mind that high-level cognitive functioning in humans is inseparable from affective consciousness, investigating the mechanisms of emotional processing belongs to an important area of cognitive sciences. Studying music perception can help to advance methods of music therapy and to elucidate major aspects of human consciousness.” (emphasis added)(Article is on ReseaechGate; membership(.

Drumming program to improve social interactions

Although the article is about subjects with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), I think that the results are likely to be replicable with or generalizable to Parkinson’s Disease folks.

” results suggest that the children with ASD significantly improved in the domains of enjoyment and fun, and showed a positive trend for developing improved social relationships with peers and camp counselor partners.”

 

###

Music, Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , , , Leave a comment

Music on the brain

by

Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) and Argentinean Tango

Results: Results showed significant improvements in the Tinetti scale total (mean±SD of post-pre change: 5.3±2.8, p<0.01), gait (2.5±1.2 p<0.01), and balance scores (2.8±2.0 p<0.01). TUG also improved by 3.6±0.8 seg (p<0.01). Statistically non-significant changes were recorded in mobility, bodily discomfort, stigma, social support and cognition PDQ-39 domains, with Cohen’s d sizes of 0.5-0.6 and NNTs of 5-7.

Conclusion: RAS could be combined with Argentinean Tango. Positive effects on gait and balance were observed, together with a trend towards improvement in some quality of life domains. A randomized, blinded, controlled trial in a larger number of patients followed-up during a longer period is underway.

And this:Brief review of music and cognition

Given that the participants were not musicians, it can be inferred that the results of the research can be applied in other non-musical contexts, what we call “generalization” in cognitive rehabilitation, which means, non-musical gains can be transferred to daily activities. In this perspective Billhiartz et. al. (2000) argue that there is a link between musical instruction and development in non-musical skills.

… we agree that music is an important element in human life that can be used in many contexts. The musical activity is multisensorial, simultaneously integrating several systems, mainly the sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective, within a specific context, which consecrates in the sphere of embodied musical cognition.

An interview with Tom Moore

This is just a darn interesting interview with a musician and musicologist. You can’t make this stuff up.

 

Music, Parkinson's, Research , Leave a comment

Autism and Parkinson’s, and data-driven subtyping of PD

by
Found this reference to a study involving autistic children.
Since Parkinson’s is a movement disorder, it stands to reason that music would be beneficial to both groups as a therapy (and it is).
http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-889-en.pdf
“Highlights
● A growing body of evidence suggests that motor impairments are frequently present in children with autism.
● Music therapy along with physical activity might benefit children with autism.
● We observed a significant difference between the experimental and control group after applying music therapy along with play therapy.
Plain Language Summary: Children with autism show motor impairments. Music therapy along with physical activity is a significant treatment in improving motor coordination. In this study, 30 children with autism were participated in 15 music therapy sessions. Music therapy are presented in two methods: (a) inactive one; listening to music and (b) active one; playing and rhythmic movements. Based on the results, motor coordination was achieved in the posttest.”
 
Directly related to Parkinson’s is this research paper on data-driven subtyping of PD:
“466 patients with idiopathic PD were investigated and three subtypes were identified. Subtype I (Mild Baseline, Moderate Motor Progression) is comprised of 43.1% of the participants, with average age 58.79 ± 9.53 years, and was characterized by moderate functional decay in motor ability but stable cognitive ability. Subtype II (Moderate Baseline, Mild Progression) is comprised of 22.9% of the participants, with average age 61.93 ± 6.56 years, and was characterized by mild functional decay in both motor and non-motor symptoms. Subtype III (Severe Baseline, Rapid Progression) is comprised 33.9% of the patients, with average age 65.32 ± 8.86 years, and was characterized by rapid progression of both motor and non-motor symptoms. These subtypes suggest that when comprehensive clinical and biomarker data are incorporated into a deep learning algorithm, the disease progression rates do not necessarily associate with baseline severities, and the progression rate of non-motor symptoms is not necessarily correlated with the progression rate of motor symptoms.”
 
In other words, everybody’s Parkinson’s journey is unique.
Exercise, Music, Parkinson's, Reviews Leave a comment

Review of exercise and PD, and creativity and PD

by

Today’s feed brings me the following two articles, one of which points out that exercise is not a “one size fits all” approach to controlling PD symptoms, and the other which is more exploratory in nature and thought-provoking.

Exercise and PD – review article 

In this review article, the authors

” briefly review the state of the art in key areas and speculate on the likely state of research in each area in the next 20 years. Key areas relate to: (1) the physiological benefits of exercise with respect to disease modification; (2) the best type of exercise; (3) the optimal intensity of exercise; and (4) implementation strategies for increasing exercise/physical activity uptake.”

“Does exercise have significant promise to mitigate the burden and possibly the course of PD? We think so. But to answer that question we will need to design trials that account for the multisystem nature of PD, identify the specific effects of exercise and target the underlying pathophysiology/mechanisms. A better understanding of this would allow for a more personalized approach rather than the current ‘one size fits all’ and could most likely confer greater benefits.”

Art for Better Health and Wellbeing

A provocative article that discusses the relationships among, Dopamine, creativity, and Parkinson’s Disease:

“Dopamine’s role in creativity seems causal: when patients with
Parkinson’s receive dopaminergic medicine to improve their
mobility the treatment also stimulates curiosity, motivation, and
even creativity in as many as 10% of patients.

Some develop beautiful art, even if their creative intelligence had never
expressed itself before. Other patients change their existing
artistic expressions under dopaminergic stimulation, sometimes
strikingly.

Perhaps even more provocative is the recent finding that healthy
people who had chosen an artistic profession early in life had
a reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.”

 

Music, Parkinson's, Research , , Leave a comment

Advice to People with PD: Sing while you walk

by

Internal cueing improves gait more than external cueing in healthy adults and people with Parkinson disease 

Results indicate that internal cueing was associated with improvements in gait velocity, cadence, and stride length in the backward direction, and reduced variability in both forward and backward walking. In comparison, external cueing was associated with minimal improvement in gait characteristics and a decline in gait stability. People with gait impairment due to aging or neurological decline may benefit more from internal cueing techniques such as singing as compared to external cueing techniques.

The feasibility of singing to improve gait in Parkinson disease.

Abstract

Brain regions important for controlling movement are also responsible for rhythmic processing. In Parkinson disease (PD), defective internal timing within the brain has been linked to impaired beat discrimination, and may contribute to a loss of ability to maintain a steady gait rhythm. Less rhythmic gait is inherently less efficient, and this may lead to gait impairment including reduced speed, cadence, and stride length, as well as increased variability. While external rhythmic auditory stimulation (e.g. a metronome beat) is well-established as an effective tool to stabilize gait in PD, little is known about whether self-generated cues such as singing have the same beneficial effect on gait in PD. Thus, we compared gait patterns of 23 people with mild to moderate PD under five cued conditions: uncued, music only, singing only, singing with music, and a verbal dual-task condition. In our single-session study, singing while walking did not significantly alter velocity, cadence, or stride length, indicating that it was not excessively demanding for people with PD. In addition, walking was less variable when singing than during other cued conditions. This was further supported by the comparison between singing trials and a verbal dual-task condition. In contrast to singing, the verbal dual-task negatively affected gait performance. These findings suggest that singing holds promise as an effective cueing technique that may be as good as or better than traditional cueing techniques for improving gait among people with PD.

 

Dance for Parkinson's, Music, Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , , , , Leave a comment

Music, Rhythm, etc.

by

therapeutic effects of singing on neurological diseases Don’t know if I’ve sent this out before. A review of benefits of singing on PD and other conditions.

“Walking to New Orleans” or rhythmic auditory cues improve gait

Results

Gait variability decreased and prefrontal HbO2 levels increased during cued walking relative to usual

walking. Older adults showed greater HbO2 levels in multiple motor regions during cued walking although the response reduced with repeated exposure. In older adults, lower depression scores, higher cognitive functioning and reduced gait variability were linked with increased HbO2 levels during RAC walking.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that walking improves with RAC in older adults and is achieved through increased activity in multiple cortical areas. The cortical response decline with repeated exposure indicates older adults’ ability to adapt to a new task

 

THE BEAT GOES ON AUDITORY CUES FOR PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S DISEASE A Powerpoint presentation that covers everything you might want to know about PD and auditory cues. Basically, folks did as well or better with music than a metronome beat, and enjoyed walking to music better. significant results reported and apparently both CMTs and PTs were in agreement.
 
Not Cure but heal: Music and Medicine  a chapter in a book, but the references are listed, and some of them are available free on PubMed Central

Internal cues better than external in improving gait

Results indicate that internal cueing was associated with improvements in gait velocity, cadence, and stride length in the backward direction, and reduced variability in both forward and backward walking. In comparison, external cueing was
associated with minimal improvement in gait characteristics and a decline in gait stability. People with gait impairment due to aging or neurological decline may benefit more from internal cueing techniques such as singing as compared to external cueing techniques.
Meter and learning (open access article) Both dance and music performers must learn timing patterns (temporal learning, or ‘when‘) along with series of different movements (ordinal learning, or ‘what‘). It has been suggested that the organization of temporal events into regular beat cycles (meter strength) may enhance both temporal and ordinal learning, but empirical evidence is mixed and incomplete. In the present study, we examined meter-strength effects on the concurrent temporal and ordinal learning of sequences. Meter strength enhanced ordinal learning (‘what’) when the concurrent temporal learning was incidental, but it had no effects on temporal learning itself (‘when’). Our findings provide guidelines for dance and music teaching as well as rhythm-based neurological rehabilitation.
 
just catching up on my inbox.
I got rhythm, I got music, and if I quote more than that UMG’s lawyers will probably sue me, too.
Music, Parkinson's, Research, Uncategorized Leave a comment

A few good links

by

Biorxiv .    

Biorix is an open access repository for pre-print articles, hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory  The above link is a search for articles related to parkinson’s Disease, but there are many other fields covered. Their motto or subtitle is “Advancing the frontiers of biology through research & education.”

The Science of Parkinson’s blog

The Science of Parkinson’s is a blog run by a fellow named Simon who likes to include interesting graphics with his posts.. Also has a Facebook page, where mainly  posts link to the blog entries a they come out Facebook page

PubMed  

PubMed comprises more than 28 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. If you like to read the full articles and not just the abstracts, this is the place to go: PubMed Help on getting journal articles. 

Or if you’re as lazy as I am, just choose the Open Access and last 10 years filters.

Music, Parkinson's, Research, Reviews, Uncategorized , Leave a comment

Music Training and PD

by

A Rationale for Muusic Training To Enhance Executive Function in Parkinson’s Disease: An Overview of the Problem

From the abstract:: “Deficits in executive functions (e.g., attention, processing speed) in patients with PD result in gait interference, deficits in emotional processing, loss of functional capacity (e.g., intellectual activity, social participation), and reduced quality of life. ” (for people with Parkinson’s Disease.

The authors note that music listening interventions can help with gait and freezing, but that the effecct of actual musical training on executive functions mentioned above is unknown.

“In piano training, fine motor finger movements activate the cerebellum and supplementary motor areas (SMA) , thereby exercising the CTC network. We hypothesize that exercising the CTC network through music training will contribute to enhanced executive functions. Previous research suggested that music training enhances cognitive performance (i.e., working memory and processing speed) in healthy adults and adults with cognitive impairments. ”

” Previous research suggested that music training enhances cognitive performance (i.e., working memory and processing speed) in healthy adults and adults with cognitive impairments. This review and rationale provides support for the use of music training to enhance cognitive outcomes in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD).”

The evidence revewed in the article “presents a compelling case for music training to improve executive functioning for adults with PD.

“First, music training activates the cerebellar-thalamocortical network (CTC) network providing a rerouting to activate executive functions through fine motor activity .”

The authors “hypothesize that exercising the CTC network through music training will contribute to enhanced cognitive performance.

The Movement Disorder Society (MDS) values the identification and intervention of cognitive impairment in adults with PD, and sees it as part of essential care—a need yet to be met.”

“Cognitive interventions that include repeated practice exercising the CTC network through sensorimotor integration may assist patients with PD. While research has shown that music training enhances cognitive performance (i.e., working memory and processing speed) in healthy older adults, there is a need to extend the benefits of music training to patients with PD.”

Please excuse me, time for my keyboard practice.
Dance for Parkinson's, Music, Parkinson's, Research , , Leave a comment

Some references on Dance + Parkinson’s Disease + Singing + Music … for reading and assimilation

by

The overall arc of research on music is that it does more than soothe the savagw breast [ it mrnds the mind, provides rhythmic cues and aids in movement and balance, and singing helps with breathing and volume. Here are just three references – the third has to do with autism spectrum disorder, but what the heck, worth a read, and perhaps one can extrapolate to PD, if not generalize…

Evaluating Dancing With Parkinson’s: Reflections from the perspective of a community organization 

The neurochemistry of music

Effects of Dance Therapy

 

 

Music, Parkinson's, Research, The Meaning of Life , Leave a comment

Contributing to Research via DNA sharing

by

I had my DNA analyzed by 23AndMe and in addition to getting some somewhat innocuous reports on my genetic makeup (including the revelation that there is about .5% match each with Askenazi and African groups somewhere in my ancestry, plus some Neanderthal genes) my data has been anonymously included in nine published articles/studies so far, including:

  1.   23and Me blog article on Depression and genes:  https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/new-genetic-findings-on-depression/     The original (abstract of) the article on genes associated with depression:  http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v48/n9/full/ng.3623.html 
  2.  On genes related to risks of basal cell carcinoma:  https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/new-study-on-genetics-of-common-type-of-skin-cancer/   Original article in Nature Communications:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4992160/  
  3.  AND OTHERS which can be found at 23AndMe Blog – Research category

    Live long and Prosper!