Individuals with dementia will often lose their ability to verbally communicate with loved ones throughout the later stages of the disease.
A new study, which is a collaboration between Northwestern Medicine and the Institute for Therapy through the arts (ITA), displays how music intervention could help with communication.
The intervention called “Musical Bridges to Memory” was developed at ITA.
A live ensemble plays music from a patients youth, which allows them to create an emotional connection between patient and carer.
This connection is established through interaction with the music, through the likes of singing and dancing.
The programme also helped to develop patients social engagement and reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms, including anxiety and depression in both patient and carer.
Lead author of the study, Dr Borna Bonakdarpour, highlights the unorthodox approach of the study as it targeted both patient and carer, as previous studies involving music have only been directed at the patient.
Bondakdarpour says: “Patients were able to connect with partners through music, a connection that was not available to them verbally
“The family and friends of people with dementia also are affected by it. It’s painful for them when they can’t connect with a loved one.
“When language is no longer possible, music gives them a bridge to each other.”
Alzheimer’s and Music Memory
Memories of music will often remain in the brain, even after languages and other memories start to fade because of dementia.
This is due to the regions of the brain that are involved with music memory are not affected by Alzheimer’s, until much later in the course of the disease.
Thus meaning that patients can retain the ability to dance and sing along after their ability to communicate has diminished.
How the study was implemented
For the study, residents of Silverado Memory Care who have dementia, along with their care partners were recorded on video conversing and interacting 10 minutes before and then after the intervention.
Before music was played, each patient and carer pair received training on how to interact more effectively during the music.
During the musical intervention, which lasted 45 minutes, an ensemble of chamber musicians and a signer performed songs that appealed to the patients from their younger days.
The patients and carers were given simple instruments such as tambourines to accompany the music.
Specially trained music therapists interacted with patients during performances, getting them to beat on drums, as well as sing and dance.
After the music interventions, a group conversation would ensue.
Patients were noticeably more socially engaged as evidenced by more eye contact, less distraction and elevated mood.
In comparison to the control group, who did not receive the musical intervention and instead were exposed to usual daily care and programmes, they did not show such changes in the same time frame.
This programme included 12 sessions over a three month period.
Before the intervention, it was noticeable that some individuals would not communicate with their partners.
However, during the musical intervention the same individuals that would not communicate, started to dance, sing and play with their carer.
These changes also generalised to their behaviour outside the sessions as well.
Jeffrey Wolfe, a neurologic music therapist and leader of the Musical Bridges to Memory programme says: “It became a normalising experience for the whole family. All could relate to their loved one despite their degree of dementia.”
The next step for this study is to conduct the study on a larger group of patients.
