Daniel J. Levitin, "The World in Six Songs", Page 92-93.

"I've seen patients who could barely move, people with Parkinson's who couldn't walk, who can suddenly walk, trot, dance and skip, as soon as I start playing Glen Miller or Artie Shaw on the rest home CD player"

Not sure if you read his text out of context or not. Or it could be he continued his research and gained more knowledge.

He does begin the paragraph with, "Scientists are in the business of wanting proof for everything, and I find myself caught in the metaphorical middle on this issue." Keep reading!!

The two sentences are directly contradictory. In the first book, PWP cannot follow a beat or dance; in fact being unable to follow a rythym is one the clues to diagnosis of PD. In the second book, Parkies get up and dance, obviously following the beat of the music.
I consider that the phrase in the second book is a correction of the error in the first book; but the author, publisher, etc. still stand by the error in the first book.
This is all very minor and I encourage everyone to read both books.
But I was feeling mean enough to post the first sentence again, because the entire PD industry seems to make up "evidence-based" definitions of who we are, and the lives we actually lead are not part of the evidence; the way we experience the disease is not admissible evidence, and so it easily happens that the best-selling neuro book of the decade cheerfully points out that Parkies cannot dance, at the exact time in history when the movement to get Parkies dancing has taken off across America and around the world. One of the problems of the Parkinson's picture is that Parkinson's people are not in the picture at all.

When you have a neurological disorder,the distance between point a and point b has changed as navigation of life is no longer a simplistic luxury. The arms and legs we wear which used to take us through our lives with smooth automation have become foreign to us. Simple movement was never thought about prior to this change that slowly surges through our body and a new definition of performance engulfs our mind as survival instinct takes over. The body develops a mind of its own. The walk we have always known to be ours no longer is driven by a natural beat. We then begin to create a new beat to move by. A beat that is flexible enough to change as often as we do. A beat that allows us to find the real essence of self by reinventing our purpose by examining crossroads we never had mapped before. A beat that helps the mind and body learn how to work in harmonious discovery of unity. The journey through each creative endeavor is driven by this beat and as our lives learn adaptation to it, our soul learns how to once again dance.
©Laura J Dean