As I sit in my motel room in St. Louis, MO while attending the American Music Therapy Association’s National Conference, I am so thankful to be a part of a group of professionals interested in creating ways to make life better for everyone, whether you have cancer, a mental illness, Alzheimer’s Disease, other disability or not. Sessions being offered cover a wide variety of topics as well as business meetings and the like. My first session was on working with individuals experiencing dementia, or related disorder. I learned that over 5 million individuals* live with this every day in the U. S. and 15 million unpaid caregivers* are estimated to work/live and assist these folks. Those are staggering statistics! No wonder researchers are looking for ways to curb the effects of dementia and related disorders.
Researchers Gooding, Abner, Jicha, Kryscio and Schmitt asked the question posed above. If you learned to play a musical instrument, could read music, or participated in music making early or mid-life, how would that affect your memory and cognition later in life? After attending yesterday’s session, it is a good question to ask and one that merits review.
These researchers surveyed over 200 “cognitively intact participants” (p. 1) and rated them based on their knowledge or experience with music. Individuals were then divided into sub-groups of, “low, medium, or high-knowledge groups” (p.1) as well as age, gender, etc. They then gave them standardized tests, which examine their brain function specifically verbal fluency and episodic memory. As you can imagine, those with significant musical training had higher scores on their standardized tests. Results showed that even if an individual could read music, but not necessarily play an instrument, it resulted in higher scores.
What do these results mean for music therapists? Scores of us work with those who are already in the advanced disease stage of Alzheimer’s or dementia. I for one, have worked with individuals who can no longer talk but can sing every word to a familiar song. It certainly does not mean we need to only work with individuals who have had some form of musical training, but does suggest that having this training even later in life can increase your chances of maintaining a higher level of cognition and working memory. Music’s interaction with the brain involves so many different areas of the brain. No doubt an active brain is healthier than one that is not challenged.
To find out more about music therapy and how it can assist your loved one or someone you know who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, visit www.musictherapy.org or centralohiomusictherapy.com.
Stephanie H. Morris, MM, MT-BC
Neurologic Music Therapy Fellow
Central Ohio Music Therapy, LLC
*Jasko, K., Mull, J., Shultis, C., and Sirott, R. presented “Creative Approaches to Dementia Care” on November 15, 2017.
Gooding, L. F., Abner, E. L., Jicha, G. A., Kryscio, R. J., & Schmitt, F. A. (2013). Musical training and late-life cognition. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias 12 (2013), p. 1 – 11; DOI: 10.1177/1533317513517048