Recently I have been doing research on how music and neurology. I have become very interested in the mechanisms behind music therapy. Music is used to help many patients with diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and many more. These disorders have similar symptoms such as: memory loss, loss of movement and speech. Music is used in marvelous ways to correct these symptoms.
Music is played to help regain muscle memory. When a slow song is played the patient is challenged to move very slowly, helping those who jolt or are jerky. If the patient wants to move at a faster pace all they need to do is listen to a fast paced song. The same goes for a slower song, they will move slower.
A similar scenario goes on with re-learning how to speak. A patient listens to a song and memorizes the lyrics. Slowly they start singing along with the song, then they slowly start to take out the music and all you hear is their voice. Then over time, they start to transform their singing into speech. Then they slowly start adding their own words instead of the lyrics.
It's a great transformation these patients go through with music. It's inspiring and emotional. There are plenty of youtube videos that are on music therapy. I have cried watching some of these videos. This is something I would love to pursue. It combines two of my favorite things; music and helping others.
Wow, this is useful to my project as well, but this is really deep. I did some research as well on music therapy, but it's clear you dug way deeper than I did. Your blog is very useful to me because you and I are trying to do the same thing: help others by, but in different ways. I don't have anything to criticize on, I just wanted to let you know that your post has informed me because I knew therapy sessions use music to serve as a "personality identifier,"but I didn't know they use it to re-gain memory, and I didn't know Susan's husband specialized in music therapy. So thanks.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you knew, but on the news there was a project that helps teens turn their lives around. Here is a link on an article. You may already have done research on it, but here it is anyways: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/4795706.html. Hope it helps.
ReplyDeleteMusic is amazing for Alzheimer's patients. They remember music and songs long after much of everything else is forgotten. Also, In "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks, one story is about a guy who lost most memory, but was able to do everything necessary to his day by having a song for every activity - getting dressed, brushing his teeth, etc. Interesting. And of course, there's the music at death movement - I have a friend who plays the harp for hospice patients.
ReplyDelete