January 11, 2024 • 24 mins
How can Music assist in the “awakening and healing” of individuals with neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias? How is music effective in the care of individuals with these conditions? Join Dana with today’s guest, Dr. Concetta Tomaino, the Executive Director/Co-Founder for the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function in Mount Vernon, New York, who answers these questions and more. Gain a greater understanding of the power of music and how caregivers can integrate music into their daily routines with their affected loved ones. Dr. Tomaino also discusses how music is connected to our emotions and our lived experiences and that these connections stay with us throughout our lives.
Do you have a question for Dana? Email her directly at thememorywhisperer@gmail.com or visit www.thememorywhisperer.com for additional resources.
The Memory Whisperer podcast is written and produced by Dana Territo, with help from audio editor Blake Langlinais. Additional production support from Ryan Martz and Julia Weaver. Special thanks to Michael Andrews, a person with dementia, and Innovations in Dementia, CIC for our flute music. Graphics by Xdesign.
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It started with Peggy, someone with Alzheimer's who never knew
my name and who I companion at her nursing home
residence for twenty two years. Her influence in my life
and the values I received from growing up with grandparents
living in our home are the guiding forces in my
love and advocacy for the Alzheimer's population. I am a
(00:27):
newspaper columnist for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and
the author of What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer's Disease.
And now I'm launching a podcast. Hi, you're listening to
Dana Tito, the Memory Whisper. Join me in these podcasts
as we engage in thoughtful conversations about Alzheimer's disease and
(00:49):
other dementias. Hi, today, I have a pioneer in the
field of music therapy, doctor Concotta Tomno. She is both
the executive director and co founder of the Institute for
Music and Neurologic Function in Mount Vernon, New York. Internationally
known for her research in the clinical applications of music
(01:11):
and neurologic rehabilitation, Doctor Tomeno has lectured on music therapy
throughout the United States and in Argentina, South Africa, Italy,
England and Canada. A past president of the American Association
for Music Therapy, doctor Tomeno was honored at the United
Nations with the Music Therapist for Peace Award of Accomplishment.
(01:31):
The Institute for Music and Neurologic Functions groundbreaking and internationally
recognized research, education and training programs used music therapy to
assist the awakening and healing of individuals with the wide
range of neurological conditions, including strokes, trauma, dementia, Alzheimer's disease,
(01:51):
and Parkinson's disease. Well, thank you, doctor Tomato for being
here today. Tell us a little bit about yourself and
how you were drawn to music.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
They thank you so much for inviting me. Well, my
background and my history to get into music therapy is
interesting because I was always a science geek, and so
since I was little, had really wanted to be a
medical doctor. But all throughout my childhood I took accordinging
(02:21):
lessons when I was a kid. I still play that instrument,
and I also took up trumpet when I was in
high school. So when I went to college, I was
a pre med student, and that's what I had planned
to study, but I also wanted to take trumpet lessons
and ended up in order to do that, the professors
that I had to become a music major. So my
(02:42):
sophomore year of college, I double major in science and
music and realized at that point I had never really
studied classical music and had no background, and the whole
world of music I had never heard was opened up
to me. I was absolutely addicted, and by my junior
year I didn't know what to do with my life
and found an article about the emerging field of music
(03:07):
therapy and wrote to that organization. It was the National
Association for Music Therapy. This was back in probably nineteen
seventy four, so it.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Was relatively new. It was.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
The field of music therapy was formally organized in nineteen
fifty and so it's still relatively not only twenty years old,
and still not many academic courses on the East coast.
There was a program in Michigan and Kansas and you know,
around the country, but not where I lived in New York,
(03:42):
and so I didn't know quite what to do. Because
I felt that this wonderful field could be a way
of my merging my passion for music and my passion
and desire to work in healthcare. And so I actually
one of the teachers and the band I was playing
(04:02):
in college heard about a new music therapy degree at
New York University that had just started and suggested that
I go there, and that's exactly what I did. So
after graduation applied for them. Literally within a month of
graduation that I was taking my first coss in music
therapy at NYU, and because of my background in science,
(04:24):
sort of interpreted the responses I saw with people that
I was working with a little differently. That led to
this passion for understanding the science of music and human experience.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So what is exactly is music therapy if you would
describe it to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Sure, So it's important for your listeners to know that
the field of music therapy is an organized profession. The
definition of music therapy is using music and the components
of music in and interactive interpersonal way with a client
(05:03):
to achieve psychological, physiological, interpersonal, cognitive, all these kinds of
benefits through the use of music, and it's provided by
a board certified music therapists. So music therapists have an
academic degree in music therapy, have had twelve hundred hours
(05:25):
of supervised clinical training and then sit for a broad exam.
So the reason why I mentioned that is because many times,
and all of us use music in the therapeutic way
many times, and so many times, you'll end the press
has been really interested in the therapeutic nature of music,
more so than ever before, and so many times people
(05:48):
read about music therapy with small and small ti and
it really means all these wonderful therapeutic applications of music
that people use, like yourself, you know, working with people
with dementor working with loved ones who may have you know,
may feel lonely and personally, to use it as a
(06:09):
way of motivating yourself and to suit yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Right, But I'm not a music therapist, I just.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Right right, and all of us, every single person should
be able to use music to benefit themselves and they
loved ones. So many of us in the field like
to provide information and education to others so they know
how to use music to their benefit.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
You talk about using music therapy to assist in the
awakening and healing of individuals with neurological conditions. What makes
music therapy effective?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, my work and the Institute I co founded with neurologists,
all of us Sacks, who many people may know from
the movie Awakenings and from his best selling books. So
he and I started working together in nineteen eighty. And
back then there was still this understanding even in this
and that when somebody had a brain injury, it was
(07:03):
a final injury and that recovery was maybe some kind
of compensation. But nobody really recovered from a stroke, or
nobody really recovered speech after a brain injury. And if
you had Parkinson's or if you had a movement disorder,
you just had to learn to find ways of dealing
with it, but you wouldn't improve. And yet my work,
(07:27):
intensely with all of his doctor Sex's patients and my patients,
was that if I used music in a very purposeful
way consistently, over time our patients started to improve. So
people who had a stroke and had something called non
fluent phasia where they couldn't speak a word or a sentence,
but yet after singing and practicing intoning words, they were
(07:52):
able to speak new sentences and phrases and make their
needs known. That was unheard of. And yeah, and people
who would Parkinson's disease, who you couldn't take a few
steps across the room, could walk without any problem, and
even without assistance for the whole hallway with no trouble
(08:13):
if the right rhythm was playing. And what we saw
over time was that people weren't improving, telling us that
the brain had to change. And so the idea of
neuroplasticity was fairly new in the late seventies early eighties,
but now through science we know it's absolutely true, and
that music, because it's processed everywhere in the brain, actually
(08:35):
recruits all these networks that are shared. So there's networks
in the brain that process music, but they also are
shared with language and movement and feelings and memory, and
through those shared networks, if one of those networks has
been damaged for one particular skill, like recalling something or moving,
(08:56):
there may be an alternate pathway or a shared pathway
where music can inform that function to come back, or
to come back in a way that allows the person
more access to that ability.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Such like in traumatic brain injuries where they've lost a
certain part.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
At that point, right, that's very true, and I think
most people at this point are very familiar with Congresswoman
Garby Giffitt's recovery of her speech, and she talks very
often about the role that her music therapists played in
her recovery of her ability to speak. And so even
though Congresswoman Gifts was working with a speech pathologist, she
(09:39):
was also working with a music therapist who who used
singing and used a sing song type of way of
intoning phrases that allowed Misgiffits to be able to speak.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
So does music therapy ca very over in other conditions
than neurological conditions.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Sure so. Actually, the applications can benefit anybody you know everyday,
people you know, to reduce stress and anxiety. There's a
lot of wonderful work I work myself with veterans with
PTSD and using music improvisation as a way of dealing
with deep feelings and fears. An amazing amount of research
(10:29):
has been done in pain management and within the hospital
medical systems. There's also a great body of research and
clinical work in working with kids with different types of
developmental delays so pre language ability. In fact, one of
(10:49):
the interesting things we know now is that children who
have language delays actually have poor rhythm perception and because
they can process patterns of sound they can't. Their brain
just doesn't make sense of the spoken word, and so
their early intervention is to get them to be able
to replicate patents of sound, either by playing the drama
(11:10):
or tapping the hand, and that carries over then to
their ability to perceive this patent of sound we call
language as the spoken word, and then they can gradually
learn to speak that. So applications are quite broad, and
luckily now we have collaborators in science that can help
(11:30):
us understand how and why it's so effective.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
So what would be the goals of music therapy for
perhaps someone with dementia or Alzheimer's.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Disease, anybody with norocognitive deficits, especially somebody who's been diagnosed
with Alzheimer's in the early stages. Many times we can
use mallet sort of a musical jingle as a mnemonic device.
So if they're forgetting phone numbers, if they're forgetting the addresses,
if they're forgetting names, we could make a memory tool
(12:02):
to help with holding that. But in the long term,
and my doctoral dissertation was for people with the end
stages of Alzheimer's disease who at that point had totally
lost their recognition of loved ones and sense of where
they were. But with those people or the biographical music,
music that represented key moments in their lives was still
(12:26):
accessible to them and still brought up those feelings. So
we can use music, and when I say we are
mean the collective field of music therapy and also other
people can use music that's personally important to help somebody
with dementia feel safe and connected when their world is
so disorienting to them. And so those familiar sounds are
(12:50):
connected very deeply with very strong emotions, very strong associations
that even though that person can call to mind what
they feeling or recogn or we call the name of
the song, those feelings and associations can provide a sense
of comfort and connectedness that is otherwise not available to them.
(13:12):
So in those moments of listening to that song, they
feel themselves and feel a connection to who they were
and who they are. And so we can use that
very effectively to help with things like behaviors. And there's
been studies that show that using personalized music for people
(13:33):
who have agitation related to Alzheimer's disease and dementia can
actually reduce those episodes of agitation and thus reducing the
requirement or what need for any kind of pharmacological treatment
for that. So we can do something by using music
to reduce the need for medication, which has a great benefit.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Right, So you would say that music is a very
important component intervention for those with Alzheimer's or dementia.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Absolutely, And so one of the things I think care
partner is, whether it's a spouse or child who is
living with somebody who has dementia, when they learned that
they can use music in this way that's very effective,
they really hold on to it because it's a tool
that's readily available to them. So if they have someone
(14:24):
who's difficult to get out of their chair to use
the toilet or to bathe, they can find an upbeat
song that the person used to dance to and you know,
grab the person by the hand and start dancing and
get them to move so that they can do other
types of care. And there's been actually some studies that
show even in a nursing home where the CNA, the
(14:48):
direct caregiver for that person who may be agitated during
bathing or dressing, if they sing to that person or
put on a favorite song for that resident, that it's
easier to take care of them. So there's tremendous benefit.
In fact, before the Institute was founded in nineteen ninety five,
(15:08):
I received a very large grand from New York State
Dementia Research and it was a grant to look at
quality of life programs for people with dementia. So was
back in nineteen ninety three, and so we looked at
and studied the use of familiar music and people with dementia.
(15:29):
It was so successful that New York State started advocating
for the use of personalized music and familiar music with
people with dementia throughout the system.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So a care partner listening right now about music and
what do they have available in their home to start
that to help interventions with their loved one.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, there's actually a few programs. I don't want to
sound like a commercial, but there's a where We pontnered
recently with a an app called Verra v e r
A and Verra is an app that a care partner
can download. There's a three thirty month trial, a thirty
day trial, but this particular app, uh the care partner
(16:17):
filled out an intake form basically the age of the person,
where they country of origin, where they spent most of
their childhood types of music that they like, types of
music that is relaxing to them, that's energizing. And then
the VERA company has a permission from Universal Music Group
(16:42):
to then stream their large library of music. So on
a tablet or on the phone, a care partner can
bring up, you know, dad's a favorite relaxing music and
in that moment will stream immediately wow, favorite music and.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
They need it. They create a playlist on Verra.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's streaming, So it's
going to just come up randomly. But then the care partner,
as they see more positive results, can can select that
particular song as being a favorite sopha if your if
your father starts singing and and really loves this song,
then you can take it, so it comes up more often.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Does someone have to be musically inclined to participate in
music therapy?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
No, not not at all. In fact, in fact, all
of it. So many philosophers, but all of us acts
used to say this all the time, that that we
are musical beings and and our chemistry and on the
electrical makeup of our body is all about rhythms and
patterns and and responses to sound. So even if you're
(17:54):
not musical, you respond to music the only There are
some contraindications that people should be aware of that people
who may have a seizure disorder may have a seizure
if certain types of rhythms are played, or loud sounds
or southern sound to play. So something to think about.
(18:16):
People who have temple lobe dementia many times have a
change in the auditory perception of sound, and because of that,
even a piece of music that they absolutely loved years
ago may sound like noise and static because of the
change in the temple lope in their brain. And so
somebody is yelling and screaming even if you're playing their
(18:39):
favorite piece of music, you may want to if that
person hasn't been diagnosed with temple lope dementia, they you
might want to check that because that's one of the
indications that that area of the brain has been damaged.
Something I talked to care partners a lot about is
that there art because music is such emotionally so connected
(19:01):
to our emotions, that we also have negative memories and
associations with music. And so if there was a favorite song,
they your child had loved and then you lost that child,
or if you had a relationship with somebody and that ended,
those songs can bring up those memories, and for personal dementia,
(19:21):
sometimes it's hard for them to fully express that sense
of loss, and so the care partner has to just
be very aware of the possibility that this song can
bring up negative responses, which isn't bad if they could
deal with it and let the person you express those feelings.
(19:42):
But for most people are care partners, it could be
really challenging to deal with those types of behaviors and
responses if they're very negative.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Do you find that especially music therapy especially connected or
effective at end stage Alzheimer's and dementiastly?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Even like I said, I've worked with people at very
on stages and even when they're nonverbal, even when they
seem like they are contracted in and can't move, if
you sing a song to them, or they listen to
a song that that you know before they had to
responded positively to, you'll see a relaxing of their muscles,
(20:25):
You'll see a relaxing of their face. There's a sense
of knowing. I believe until that very last moment, I
do too.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Do you have a favorite story about connecting with someone
with Alzheimer's demented through music.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
There's there's a woman that I wrote about in my
dissertation who her medical records said she was born in
the UK. They didn't say island, but it said the UK.
And she was at the point she was like pleasantly
confused but nonverbal, and her family told me that she
(21:02):
loved Irish Irish songs and she loved James Cagney, and
so I would play songs from you know, George m
cohen type songs as well as some you know, standard
American Irish songs and periodic as she would listening to
the music, and she was mostly nonverbal, would say things
(21:26):
like I gotta go, gotta pick up the kids, and
she would give then the dress. And then they were
like snippets of places that you knew that she was
recalling very specifically. And then when I told her kids,
it was I guess she was a child in Ireland
(21:48):
and in these little snippets was describing these very very
vivid images that were still available to her that each
time she heard the songs, that each time she heard
the song, it would open up another door or another
window into a piece of her memory, and we were
able to sort of unravel some of the places she
(22:08):
lived and things that she did as a child.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So, as we're leaving, what would be one pearl of
wisdom you could share with the listeners or care partners
about sharing music with others or with their loved ones.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I think the best thing is for them to do it,
you know, to really think about the role that music
is played in their lives and their loved one's life,
and especially if somebody's diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia, to
start making those associations and collections of music early on.
I've done this with care partners where instead of just
(22:45):
doing a photograph book that they actually take the photograph
or the person the pair as song a favorite song
with that person early on in the diagnosis, because later on,
when they no longer remember faces, they actually still have
that association of that song to that person.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I just really appreciate all this valuable information you've given
to our listeners, especially our caregivers of those loved ones
with experiencing Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Thank you so much
for being my guest today.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Thank you, Den appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Well, that's it for us today, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The Memory Whisper is a production of iHeartRadio and the
Cenica Women podcast Network. It's produced by Me, Dana Turedo,
and honor of Peggy and all those affected by Alzheimer's disease.
I offer a special thanks to my audio editor, Blake Longlane,
and to Michael Andrews, a person with dementia, who gave
me permission to use his beautiful flute music for this podcast.
(23:53):
For more information or to reach me directly, head on
over to my website, the Memory Whisper dot com. If
for those struggling with a diagnosis, remember my motto, the
more you know, the better it'll go. Blessings,
It started with Peggy, someone with Alzheimer's who never knew
my name and who I companion at her nursing home
residence for twenty two years. Her influence in my life
and the values I received from growing up with grandparents
living in our home are the guiding forces in my
love and advocacy for the Alzheimer's population. I am a
(00:27):
newspaper columnist for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and
the author of What My Grandchildren Taught Me About Alzheimer's Disease.
And now I'm launching a podcast. Hi, you're listening to
Dana Tito, the Memory Whisper. Join me in these podcasts
as we engage in thoughtful conversations about Alzheimer's disease and
(00:49):
other dementias. Hi, today, I have a pioneer in the
field of music therapy, doctor Concotta Tomno. She is both
the executive director and co founder of the Institute for
Music and Neurologic Function in Mount Vernon, New York. Internationally
known for her research in the clinical applications of music
(01:11):
and neurologic rehabilitation, Doctor Tomeno has lectured on music therapy
throughout the United States and in Argentina, South Africa, Italy,
England and Canada. A past president of the American Association
for Music Therapy, doctor Tomeno was honored at the United
Nations with the Music Therapist for Peace Award of Accomplishment.
(01:31):
The Institute for Music and Neurologic Functions groundbreaking and internationally
recognized research, education and training programs used music therapy to
assist the awakening and healing of individuals with the wide
range of neurological conditions, including strokes, trauma, dementia, Alzheimer's disease,
(01:51):
and Parkinson's disease. Well, thank you, doctor Tomato for being
here today. Tell us a little bit about yourself and
how you were drawn to music.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
They thank you so much for inviting me. Well, my
background and my history to get into music therapy is
interesting because I was always a science geek, and so
since I was little, had really wanted to be a
medical doctor. But all throughout my childhood I took accordinging
(02:21):
lessons when I was a kid. I still play that instrument,
and I also took up trumpet when I was in
high school. So when I went to college, I was
a pre med student, and that's what I had planned
to study, but I also wanted to take trumpet lessons
and ended up in order to do that, the professors
that I had to become a music major. So my
(02:42):
sophomore year of college, I double major in science and
music and realized at that point I had never really
studied classical music and had no background, and the whole
world of music I had never heard was opened up
to me. I was absolutely addicted, and by my junior
year I didn't know what to do with my life
and found an article about the emerging field of music
(03:07):
therapy and wrote to that organization. It was the National
Association for Music Therapy. This was back in probably nineteen
seventy four, so it.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Was relatively new. It was.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
The field of music therapy was formally organized in nineteen
fifty and so it's still relatively not only twenty years old,
and still not many academic courses on the East coast.
There was a program in Michigan and Kansas and you know,
around the country, but not where I lived in New York,
(03:42):
and so I didn't know quite what to do. Because
I felt that this wonderful field could be a way
of my merging my passion for music and my passion
and desire to work in healthcare. And so I actually
one of the teachers and the band I was playing
(04:02):
in college heard about a new music therapy degree at
New York University that had just started and suggested that
I go there, and that's exactly what I did. So
after graduation applied for them. Literally within a month of
graduation that I was taking my first coss in music
therapy at NYU, and because of my background in science,
(04:24):
sort of interpreted the responses I saw with people that
I was working with a little differently. That led to
this passion for understanding the science of music and human experience.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So what is exactly is music therapy if you would
describe it to our listeners.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Sure, So it's important for your listeners to know that
the field of music therapy is an organized profession. The
definition of music therapy is using music and the components
of music in and interactive interpersonal way with a client
(05:03):
to achieve psychological, physiological, interpersonal, cognitive, all these kinds of
benefits through the use of music, and it's provided by
a board certified music therapists. So music therapists have an
academic degree in music therapy, have had twelve hundred hours
(05:25):
of supervised clinical training and then sit for a broad exam.
So the reason why I mentioned that is because many times,
and all of us use music in the therapeutic way
many times, and so many times, you'll end the press
has been really interested in the therapeutic nature of music,
more so than ever before, and so many times people
(05:48):
read about music therapy with small and small ti and
it really means all these wonderful therapeutic applications of music
that people use, like yourself, you know, working with people
with dementor working with loved ones who may have you know,
may feel lonely and personally, to use it as a
(06:09):
way of motivating yourself and to suit yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Right, But I'm not a music therapist, I just.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Right right, and all of us, every single person should
be able to use music to benefit themselves and they
loved ones. So many of us in the field like
to provide information and education to others so they know
how to use music to their benefit.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
You talk about using music therapy to assist in the
awakening and healing of individuals with neurological conditions. What makes
music therapy effective?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, my work and the Institute I co founded with neurologists,
all of us Sacks, who many people may know from
the movie Awakenings and from his best selling books. So
he and I started working together in nineteen eighty. And
back then there was still this understanding even in this
and that when somebody had a brain injury, it was
(07:03):
a final injury and that recovery was maybe some kind
of compensation. But nobody really recovered from a stroke, or
nobody really recovered speech after a brain injury. And if
you had Parkinson's or if you had a movement disorder,
you just had to learn to find ways of dealing
with it, but you wouldn't improve. And yet my work,
(07:27):
intensely with all of his doctor Sex's patients and my patients,
was that if I used music in a very purposeful
way consistently, over time our patients started to improve. So
people who had a stroke and had something called non
fluent phasia where they couldn't speak a word or a sentence,
but yet after singing and practicing intoning words, they were
(07:52):
able to speak new sentences and phrases and make their
needs known. That was unheard of. And yeah, and people
who would Parkinson's disease, who you couldn't take a few
steps across the room, could walk without any problem, and
even without assistance for the whole hallway with no trouble
(08:13):
if the right rhythm was playing. And what we saw
over time was that people weren't improving, telling us that
the brain had to change. And so the idea of
neuroplasticity was fairly new in the late seventies early eighties,
but now through science we know it's absolutely true, and
that music, because it's processed everywhere in the brain, actually
(08:35):
recruits all these networks that are shared. So there's networks
in the brain that process music, but they also are
shared with language and movement and feelings and memory, and
through those shared networks, if one of those networks has
been damaged for one particular skill, like recalling something or moving,
(08:56):
there may be an alternate pathway or a shared pathway
where music can inform that function to come back, or
to come back in a way that allows the person
more access to that ability.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Such like in traumatic brain injuries where they've lost a
certain part.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
At that point, right, that's very true, and I think
most people at this point are very familiar with Congresswoman
Garby Giffitt's recovery of her speech, and she talks very
often about the role that her music therapists played in
her recovery of her ability to speak. And so even
though Congresswoman Gifts was working with a speech pathologist, she
(09:39):
was also working with a music therapist who who used
singing and used a sing song type of way of
intoning phrases that allowed Misgiffits to be able to speak.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
So does music therapy ca very over in other conditions
than neurological conditions.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Sure so. Actually, the applications can benefit anybody you know everyday,
people you know, to reduce stress and anxiety. There's a
lot of wonderful work I work myself with veterans with
PTSD and using music improvisation as a way of dealing
with deep feelings and fears. An amazing amount of research
(10:29):
has been done in pain management and within the hospital
medical systems. There's also a great body of research and
clinical work in working with kids with different types of
developmental delays so pre language ability. In fact, one of
(10:49):
the interesting things we know now is that children who
have language delays actually have poor rhythm perception and because
they can process patterns of sound they can't. Their brain
just doesn't make sense of the spoken word, and so
their early intervention is to get them to be able
to replicate patents of sound, either by playing the drama
(11:10):
or tapping the hand, and that carries over then to
their ability to perceive this patent of sound we call
language as the spoken word, and then they can gradually
learn to speak that. So applications are quite broad, and
luckily now we have collaborators in science that can help
(11:30):
us understand how and why it's so effective.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
So what would be the goals of music therapy for
perhaps someone with dementia or Alzheimer's.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Disease, anybody with norocognitive deficits, especially somebody who's been diagnosed
with Alzheimer's in the early stages. Many times we can
use mallet sort of a musical jingle as a mnemonic device.
So if they're forgetting phone numbers, if they're forgetting the addresses,
if they're forgetting names, we could make a memory tool
(12:02):
to help with holding that. But in the long term,
and my doctoral dissertation was for people with the end
stages of Alzheimer's disease who at that point had totally
lost their recognition of loved ones and sense of where
they were. But with those people or the biographical music,
music that represented key moments in their lives was still
(12:26):
accessible to them and still brought up those feelings. So
we can use music, and when I say we are
mean the collective field of music therapy and also other
people can use music that's personally important to help somebody
with dementia feel safe and connected when their world is
so disorienting to them. And so those familiar sounds are
(12:50):
connected very deeply with very strong emotions, very strong associations
that even though that person can call to mind what
they feeling or recogn or we call the name of
the song, those feelings and associations can provide a sense
of comfort and connectedness that is otherwise not available to them.
(13:12):
So in those moments of listening to that song, they
feel themselves and feel a connection to who they were
and who they are. And so we can use that
very effectively to help with things like behaviors. And there's
been studies that show that using personalized music for people
(13:33):
who have agitation related to Alzheimer's disease and dementia can
actually reduce those episodes of agitation and thus reducing the
requirement or what need for any kind of pharmacological treatment
for that. So we can do something by using music
to reduce the need for medication, which has a great benefit.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Right, So you would say that music is a very
important component intervention for those with Alzheimer's or dementia.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Absolutely, And so one of the things I think care
partner is, whether it's a spouse or child who is
living with somebody who has dementia, when they learned that
they can use music in this way that's very effective,
they really hold on to it because it's a tool
that's readily available to them. So if they have someone
(14:24):
who's difficult to get out of their chair to use
the toilet or to bathe, they can find an upbeat
song that the person used to dance to and you know,
grab the person by the hand and start dancing and
get them to move so that they can do other
types of care. And there's been actually some studies that
show even in a nursing home where the CNA, the
(14:48):
direct caregiver for that person who may be agitated during
bathing or dressing, if they sing to that person or
put on a favorite song for that resident, that it's
easier to take care of them. So there's tremendous benefit.
In fact, before the Institute was founded in nineteen ninety five,
(15:08):
I received a very large grand from New York State
Dementia Research and it was a grant to look at
quality of life programs for people with dementia. So was
back in nineteen ninety three, and so we looked at
and studied the use of familiar music and people with dementia.
(15:29):
It was so successful that New York State started advocating
for the use of personalized music and familiar music with
people with dementia throughout the system.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
So a care partner listening right now about music and
what do they have available in their home to start
that to help interventions with their loved one.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, there's actually a few programs. I don't want to
sound like a commercial, but there's a where We pontnered
recently with a an app called Verra v e r
A and Verra is an app that a care partner
can download. There's a three thirty month trial, a thirty
day trial, but this particular app, uh the care partner
(16:17):
filled out an intake form basically the age of the person,
where they country of origin, where they spent most of
their childhood types of music that they like, types of
music that is relaxing to them, that's energizing. And then
the VERA company has a permission from Universal Music Group
(16:42):
to then stream their large library of music. So on
a tablet or on the phone, a care partner can
bring up, you know, dad's a favorite relaxing music and
in that moment will stream immediately wow, favorite music and.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
They need it. They create a playlist on Verra.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's streaming, So it's
going to just come up randomly. But then the care partner,
as they see more positive results, can can select that
particular song as being a favorite sopha if your if
your father starts singing and and really loves this song,
then you can take it, so it comes up more often.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Does someone have to be musically inclined to participate in
music therapy?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
No, not not at all. In fact, in fact, all
of it. So many philosophers, but all of us acts
used to say this all the time, that that we
are musical beings and and our chemistry and on the
electrical makeup of our body is all about rhythms and
patterns and and responses to sound. So even if you're
(17:54):
not musical, you respond to music the only There are
some contraindications that people should be aware of that people
who may have a seizure disorder may have a seizure
if certain types of rhythms are played, or loud sounds
or southern sound to play. So something to think about.
(18:16):
People who have temple lobe dementia many times have a
change in the auditory perception of sound, and because of that,
even a piece of music that they absolutely loved years
ago may sound like noise and static because of the
change in the temple lope in their brain. And so
somebody is yelling and screaming even if you're playing their
(18:39):
favorite piece of music, you may want to if that
person hasn't been diagnosed with temple lope dementia, they you
might want to check that because that's one of the
indications that that area of the brain has been damaged.
Something I talked to care partners a lot about is
that there art because music is such emotionally so connected
(19:01):
to our emotions, that we also have negative memories and
associations with music. And so if there was a favorite song,
they your child had loved and then you lost that child,
or if you had a relationship with somebody and that ended,
those songs can bring up those memories, and for personal dementia,
(19:21):
sometimes it's hard for them to fully express that sense
of loss, and so the care partner has to just
be very aware of the possibility that this song can
bring up negative responses, which isn't bad if they could
deal with it and let the person you express those feelings.
(19:42):
But for most people are care partners, it could be
really challenging to deal with those types of behaviors and
responses if they're very negative.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Do you find that especially music therapy especially connected or
effective at end stage Alzheimer's and dementiastly?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Even like I said, I've worked with people at very
on stages and even when they're nonverbal, even when they
seem like they are contracted in and can't move, if
you sing a song to them, or they listen to
a song that that you know before they had to
responded positively to, you'll see a relaxing of their muscles,
(20:25):
You'll see a relaxing of their face. There's a sense
of knowing. I believe until that very last moment, I
do too.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Do you have a favorite story about connecting with someone
with Alzheimer's demented through music.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
There's there's a woman that I wrote about in my
dissertation who her medical records said she was born in
the UK. They didn't say island, but it said the UK.
And she was at the point she was like pleasantly
confused but nonverbal, and her family told me that she
(21:02):
loved Irish Irish songs and she loved James Cagney, and
so I would play songs from you know, George m
cohen type songs as well as some you know, standard
American Irish songs and periodic as she would listening to
the music, and she was mostly nonverbal, would say things
(21:26):
like I gotta go, gotta pick up the kids, and
she would give then the dress. And then they were
like snippets of places that you knew that she was
recalling very specifically. And then when I told her kids,
it was I guess she was a child in Ireland
(21:48):
and in these little snippets was describing these very very
vivid images that were still available to her that each
time she heard the songs, that each time she heard
the song, it would open up another door or another
window into a piece of her memory, and we were
able to sort of unravel some of the places she
(22:08):
lived and things that she did as a child.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So, as we're leaving, what would be one pearl of
wisdom you could share with the listeners or care partners
about sharing music with others or with their loved ones.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I think the best thing is for them to do it,
you know, to really think about the role that music
is played in their lives and their loved one's life,
and especially if somebody's diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia, to
start making those associations and collections of music early on.
I've done this with care partners where instead of just
(22:45):
doing a photograph book that they actually take the photograph
or the person the pair as song a favorite song
with that person early on in the diagnosis, because later on,
when they no longer remember faces, they actually still have
that association of that song to that person.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I just really appreciate all this valuable information you've given
to our listeners, especially our caregivers of those loved ones
with experiencing Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Thank you so much
for being my guest today.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Thank you, Den appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Well, that's it for us today, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The Memory Whisper is a production of iHeartRadio and the
Cenica Women podcast Network. It's produced by Me, Dana Turedo,
and honor of Peggy and all those affected by Alzheimer's disease.
I offer a special thanks to my audio editor, Blake Longlane,
and to Michael Andrews, a person with dementia, who gave
me permission to use his beautiful flute music for this podcast.
(23:53):
For more information or to reach me directly, head on
over to my website, the Memory Whisper dot com. If
for those struggling with a diagnosis, remember my motto, the
more you know, the better it'll go. Blessings,
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