from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-ltm021508.php

Listening to music improves stroke patients' recovery

Listening to music in the early stages after a stroke can improve patients’ recovery, according to new research published online in the medical journal Brain today (Wednesday 20 February).

Researchers from Finland found that if stroke patients listened to music for a couple of hours a day, their verbal memory and focused attention recovered better and they had a more positive mood than patients who did not listen to anything or who listened to audio books. This is the first time such an effect has been shown in humans and the researchers believe it has important implications for clinical practice.

-As a result of our findings, we suggest that everyday music listening during early stroke recovery offers a valuable addition to the patients’ care- especially if other active forms of rehabilitation are not yet feasible at this stage-by providing an individually targeted, easy-to-conduct and inexpensive means to facilitate cognitive and emotional recovery, says Teppo Särkämö, the first author of the study.

-

-We found that three months after the stroke, verbal memory improved from the first week post-stroke by 60 percent in music listeners, by 18 percent in audio book listeners and by 29 percent in non-listeners. Similarly, focused attention-the ability to control and perform mental operations and resolve conflicts among responses-improved by 17 percent in music listeners, but no improvement was observed in audio book listeners and non-listeners. These differences were still essentially the same six months after the stroke, Särkämö says.

In addition, the researchers found that the music listening group experienced less depressed and confused mood than the patients in the control group.

-These differences in cognitive recovery can be directly attributed to the effect of listening to music, says Särkämö. -Furthermore, the fact that most of the music (63 percent) also contained lyrics would suggest that it is the musical component (or the combination of music and voice) that plays a crucial role in the patients’ improved recovery.

That's really cool. Thanks!

John

I often sing when I walk, if not out loud, to myself. It helps alot.

From the full article:

The presence of rhythmic cues adds stability in motor control immediately.

They syncronized their motor activities to the rhythm. Also helped with organization re: sequential tasks.

They discuss rhythmic synchronization of motor responses. Rhythmic cueing also enhances spatial control of movement, e.g. stride length.

The connection between rhythmicity and brain function

Abstract
We first present some clinical research results involving rhythmic facilitation and motor control. We then discuss synchronization strategies for sensorimotor coupling pertaining to rhythmic entrainment mechanisms; followed by trajectory cuing and optimization models as they relate to rhythmic entrainment and movement control; and, finally, the outlook for applications that may help rehabilitate motor function. Our interest in the study of the connections between rhythm, time, and the control of movement was stimulated from three directions: (a) the study of high-level motor control in musicians and the effect of rhythmic cues on muscle activity in cello performance; (b) the evidence that auditory rhythmic patterns exert a strong magnet effect on the timing of motor responses; and (c) the clinical observation that music-therapy techniques that were originally designed for socio-emotional needs elicited motor responses in neurologically impaired patients that were not readily accessible by other therapies..

Full article:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel4/51/1...rnumber=752991

*******************


Research Review
The power of cueing to circumvent dopamine deficits: A review of physical therapy treatment of gait disturbances in Parkinson's disease

"sensory cueing appears to be a powerful means of improving gait in PD"

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...5598/HTMLSTART

******************************

Clinical Rehabilitation, Vol. 17, No. 4, 363-367 (2003)
DOI: 10.1191/0269215503cr621oa
© 2003 SAGE Publications
Auditory cues can modify the gait of persons with early-stage Parkinson's disease: a method for enhancing parkinsonian walking performance?

"Conclusion: The rate of auditory cues, within the range tested, can modulate cadence and thus velocity of gait of subjects with early-stage Parkinson's disease. The provision of auditory cues provides a potential strategy for enhancing walking performance in these patients."

http://cre.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/17/4/363

How singing unlocks the brain
By Jane Elliott
BBC News Health reporter

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4448634.stm

As Bill Bundock's Alzheimer's progressed he became more and more locked into his own world.

He withdrew into himself and stopped communicating with his wife, Jean.

Jean said Bill lost his motivation, and his desire and ability to hold conversations, but all this changed when the couple started attending a local sing-song group, aimed especially for people with dementia.

Jean said Singing for the Brain had unlocked Bill's communication block.

Personality change

"The first time we went to Singing for the Brain he did not join in. On the second session he was starting to join in and by the third he was thoroughly taking part.

"It was wonderful for us. The singing had started to change something. It really did make a tremendous difference. He started to come out of himself.