Tag Archives: Dance

Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , Leave a comment

Dance/movement, quality of life, and social skills, oh my!

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First, an abstract:

Use of Dance/Movement therapy for autism spectrum

“… future research must demonstrate greater scientific rigor in documenting the efficacy of DMT treatment interventions. It also found that imitation (mirroring) interventions helped individuals with ASD improve their social skills.” (Bold added) (This article was one of those reviews of published articles. The abstract does include a list of references, many of which are available online).

Next, an open access article on multidisciplinary approach:
(This sounds like another article recently posted. Would investigate, but having Parkinson’s means there’s never enough time to do everything you want to do).

Enhanced Quality of Life

Objectives: To compare the effects of inpatient enhanced multidisciplinary care (EMC) and multidisciplinary rehabilitation (MR)
on the symptoms and quality of life (QOL) of patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and to clarify the relation between reduction in
symptoms and the improved QOL. Methods: This study was a quasi-randomized controlled (alternate allocation), assessor blinded, single-center study. We recruited 80 patients with idiopathic Parkinson disease, Hoehn and Yahr stage 2 to 4, on stable
medication. Patients were included in an EMC or MR group. Both rehabilitation programs were performed for 8 weeks (17 h/wk).
Main outcome measures were Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39 and Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. Results: The
EMC induced significant improvements in QOL compared to MR. We found that body axis symptoms (rising from a chair,
posture, postural stability, falling, and walking) as well as nonmotor symptoms (depression) in patients with PD were relieved by
the inpatient EMC. Conclusions: Enhanced multidisciplinary care for patients with PD appears to be effective in improving the
QOL. The improvement in motor and nonmotor symptoms, including depression, may contribute to the improved QOL.

Finally, another open access article that might be of interest to those using technology: analysis of respiration to evaluate movement.

The role of respiration audio in multimodal analysis of movement qualities

A little out in left field, but who knows?

That’s all for today, folks. Read and ponder.

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

Music on the brain

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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.

 

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A few good links

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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.

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A treasure trove of learning

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Found an interesting site out in Califrnia, an educatioanl institution naturally, with several thought provoking titles availble for reading – originally got to the site by a link to the paper on the positive effects of music therapy .

http://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes_all/  is a cresaative commons digital archive for the  California State University, Monterey Bay.:

There is an account registration, but it is not needed to download all of the files. Some of the Capstone projects and theses that I found interesting were:

PDF  A Discussion Regarding Various Animals’ Abilities to Make Music and Move Rhythmically to Songs, Emilie R. Bufford

PDF And The Beat Goes on: The Story of the Drum Machine, Ismael Medina

PDF Engineers Throughout Jazz History, Alex Declet

PDF  Sound Synthesis: Methods and Techniques, Christopher E. Hilker

PDF  The Benefits of Music in Child Development, Dulce-Paola Ixtupe

PDF  The Positive Effect Music Therapy Has on People, Rita Oby Ebo

PDF  Accommodating Students Different Learning Styles with the Use of Technology, Jaime Prieto

PDF   Comparing the Cost of Preamplifiers to Their Sonic Fidelity and Frequency Output, Jackson O. Hunter

PDF  Self-Expression Through Dance in Early Elementary School, Emily Blythe

PDF  The Benefits of Outdoor Education and Experiential Learning in Elementary Schools, Elizabeth F. Valentino

PDF  The Benefits of Outdoor Education Curriculum for Elementary School Students with Nature Deficit Disorder, Madison L. Allen

PDF  Incorporating Music and Arts to Enhancing the Learning Experience of Elementary School Students, Ashley Fernandez

PDF  Making the Garden a Viable Part of Curriculum, Laura Forbes

PDF  Variety for Vocalists, Jonathan Morgadinho

Dance for Parkinson's, Parkinson's , , Leave a comment

Dance for Parkinson’s – some links/citations

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Just posting some links to materials on dance as therapy.

MJFF blog Feb 1, on Dance for Parkinson’s

Dance for Parkinson's, Music, Parkinson's, Slices of Life , , , Leave a comment

A Good ole Boy a’Dancin an’ a’Prancin’ Again

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This just came in: A physiotherapist in Oklahoma has discovered gait training with the use of favorite music and posted the anecdotal results as a video on Facebook. I remember my first experience with Dance for Parkinson’s  and how it got me swinging my arms to the rhythm. Recently found that Walk Like A Man reminds me to get my shoulders back and my head up, instead of stooping over like Quasimodo. (YouTube of WLAM below).

Someone needs to put together a playlist on YouTube of Gait Training For Parkinson’s videos and songs. Who will beat me to it? Bueller? Bueller?

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