Dementia music miracle: Listening to childhood tune could IMPROVE brain function

It's been revealed dementia sufferers can be helped by listening to music

A NEW study published in the Journal of Alzeheimer’s Disease has discovered a way to improve the memory and cognitive function of dementia sufferers.

 

Dr Teppo, a researcher from the University of Helsinki, recruited 89 people with mild to moderate dementia and their carers to partake.

For 10 weeks, they participated in music sessions of singing or listening to records from their youth.

 

Through these regular sessions, the research team monitored how different clinical and demographic factors influenced emotions and memory as well as who benefitted most from singing or listening to songs.

The music from their childhood was found to be emotionally comforting and reignited past memories.

 

Listening to songs played on guitar

"We found that familiar music, listened to by patients in their adolescence and early twenties was more effective,” Dr Teppo explains. "In fact, we found that music patients weren't familiar with achieved very little response.”

"We also found it was a good activity to do with families - especially relatives who share a musical culture with the patient and therefore memories.”

Through the regular listening or singing participants with Alzheimers revealed decreased levels of depression and those suffering with more advanced levels of dementia also benefitted cognitively.

The musical interventions were more effective in those in earlier stages of the disease.

 

Childhood music provides emotional comfort and reignites past memories

Dr Teppo believes this research is a large break through for those suffering from the disease and will provide an easy way to approach the increasing global prevalence and burden of dementia.

"Our findings suggest that musical leisure activities could be easily applied and widely used in dementia care and rehabilitation. Especially stimulating and engaging activities, such as singing, seem to be very promising for maintaining memory functioning in the early stages of dementia."

Dr Teppo hopes the new research will provide an alternative solution to the limited resources available from public health.