Tag Archives: Dancing

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I got rhythm, I got music…

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Put together a slide presentation trying to synthesize some of the research on Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and the possibility of music, singing, playing musical instruments, and dance as means to counteract the progressive effects of dopaminergic neurons lost in the course of PD. Due to the length of the presentation and the limits of my computer resources, the narration seems to have gotten a little out of sync towards the end. But it is what it is, as they say: (note: added a PDF file of the presentation on 6-9-19 to make it easier to download and view)

Rhythm, Music, Singing, Dancing and the Brain

2019-06-05-Rhythm Music Singing and the brain  (PDF file)

and an even smaller file with all the blue and yellow intact (6-15-2019):

Rhythm Music Singing Dancing and the Brain

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Progressively difficult or complex dance training is superior to repetitive physical exercise

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Yep, you read that correctly. This research was done using neuro-imaging and revealed that brain plasticity ( how experiences reorganize neural pathways in the brain) is increased by a program of increasingly difficult dance training. (The title of this entry was edited 04/28/2021 to make it more clear that the variable was increasing the difficulty, and not simply dance vs. exercise. ALL exercise is good, as long as not overdone, but to incorporate research findings into the program (like Power for Parkinson’s or Lew-Ortiz Pabon’s Apollo Rhythm Club do), takes some extra effort).

Dance training is superior to repetitive physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity in the elderly.

… Both interventions increased physical fitness to the same extent. Pronounced differences were seen in the effects on brain volumes: Dancing compared to conventional fitness activity led to larger volume increases in more brain areas, including the cingulate cortex, insula, corpus callosum and sensorimotor cortex. Only dancing was associated with an increase in plasma BDNF levels. Regarding cognition, both groups improved in attention and spatial memory, but no significant group differences emerged. The latter finding may indicate that cognitive benefits may develop later and after structural brain changes have taken place. The present results recommend our challenging dance program as an effective measure to counteract detrimental effects of aging on the brain.

On a personal note, I noticed during a year long period of reduced mobility that my Parkinson’s symptoms had progressed (or regressed, depending on how you look at it). Slurred speech was perhaps one of the more obvious or noticeable symptoms. That has now disappeared, though one has to be mindful to speak clearly and loudly in order to be understood.

Physical exercise of any kind is good, it seems. Weight resistance and other exercises can benefit from the high intensity interval approach. But move to the music, and join a dance class that increasingly challenges the brain (especially if you are classified among the elderly, even if you are Young At Heart).

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Dance and exercise – a study and a publications review

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Not much new here – more evidence that dance exercises and physical exercise in general, is beneficial for people with PD.

Shall We Dance – master’s thesis  by Brittni Lynn McAlister, University of North Colorado

 In the words of one participant, the dance classes have been “. . . completely life-changing.”

Systematic review of exercises for Parkinson’s

This review revealed that people with Parkinson’s disease viewed physical activity as an enjoyable and positive experience, which aided with control of their symptoms and enhanced their wellbeing and quality of life.

 

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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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Biomarkers,cardio training, singing and dancing, and how jokes work.

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This is a long post. Most of the links are to free, full text articles or reports.

Recent advances in Biomarkers for Parkinson’s A review of the advances currently being made in the search for a cure.

INTERVAL TRAINING FOR CARDIOMETABOLIC AND BRAIN HEALTH

 

1. Engaging in interval exercise can boost fitness and improve your mood in a time-efficient manner.

2. Short exercise breaks like climbing the stairs can refocus attention and help maintain productivity in the workplace.

3. Combining interval exercises with motor skill training in a clinical setting can augment the recovery of function.

Dance and Health Training research report   

The aim of this research was to create a best practice model of dance and health continuing professional development (CPD); to create a dynamic, interdisciplinary course of study for dancers who are engaged in facilitating dance across a range of dance genres within health care contexts.

Outcomes of the project:  Full listing of international and national examples of best practice, core literature, key expert practitioners, full course content and delivery requirements are set out in this report.

(Note: specifically related to Ireland).

Sing while you work

This pilot study is the first Irish study of the health and wellbeing benefits of HSE workplace choirs. It is one of few studies to investigate the health and
wellbeing benefits of choir for Health Service Staff internationally.  Qualitative data confirms previous study findings; namely that a workplace choir can promote social connectedness, enjoyment at work, and staff
engagement; reduce stress; and improve perception of health and wellbeing.
Benefits of attending are noticed across workplace communications.

Comparison of two different exercise programs  (abstract only)

After treatment, UPDRS-II scores improved (mean change: EXE, -4.5 points; CYC, -3.2 points). The results for the other outcomes (EXE and CYC, respectively) were: PDQ, 13 and 17%; BDI, -2.5 and -2.1 points; 6MWT, 129.6 and 141.6 m; and EQ-5D, 12 and 9% (all p < 0.05, but there was no difference between groups). EXE vs. CYC resulted in improved SE-ADL (8.4 and 4.0 points, effect size [ES]: 0.12), BBS (8.8 and 4.2 points, ES: 0.44), and 2 measures of posturography (ES: 0.11 and 0.21) (p 0.05).

CONCLUSION:
Two highly different exercise programs resulted in similar improvement of most motor and clinical symptoms in PD patients.

One thing Parkinson’s People do to help cope with  an incurable (so far), progressive, degenerative, neurological disease is to use humor.

The following showed up in the Dance+Parkinson’s search feed, and are included here with a caveat that some of the jokes used to illustrate the ways in which humor works (theoretically) can be be considered offensive.

How do jokes work?

Back before the Internet, there was a Humor list-serve, dedicated to the study of humor and how it works.  The above PDF attempts to address the varieties of jokes, and repeats some potentially offensive ones to illustrate its concepts. Much of the text refers to the following free e-book on the Gutenberg project.

Laughter: an essay on the meaning of humor   by Henri Bergson

 

 

 

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Music, Rhythm, etc.

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

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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