Mozart effect: music is an effective "cure" for Alzheimer's patients, the study

    Mozart effect: music is an effective

    A new study shows that listening to music can improve Alzheimer's patients' ability to create memories

    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    A new study by Catalan researchers shows that listening to music can improve the ability of Alzheimer's patients to create memories





    The effect of music on mental health and on the behavior of Alzheimer's patients has been the subject of numerous studies in the past, but none of these have been interested in the impact of music on the memory of patients. Now a new study conducted by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya has tried to show that an improvement in the memory skills of people with Alzheimer's is possible through listening to music.

    The aim of the research, which lasted three years, was to investigate whether music could be used to facilitate or improve learning in patients with cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild Alzheimer's (AD), and what were the aspects of music at the basis of cognitive improvement - in other words, which type of music (relaxing, pop, rock ...) was most effective and at what stage of learning (for example, in the phase of learning about new information or in that of reviewing information previously learned).

    Most of the studies published so far have been conducted on healthy people, and this has not allowed us to understand if music actually has a stimulating effect in people with memory deficits - explains the psychologist Marco Calabria, who collaborated in the study. - Degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's are characterized by evident difficulties in creating new memories, and music can be a valuable aid in fixing new information in the patients' memory.

    (Read also: Mozart's music is a powerful epilepsy 'drug', according to this study)

    The study involved patients from the Barcelona Hospital de Sant Pau and a Catalan center specializing in the rehabilitation and cognitive stimulation of people with Alzheimer's through music. In the first do, the participants carried out actions that required a mnemonic effort (such as memorizing faces never seen before) having classical music in the background. The choice of classical music is not accidental: according to the authors, it is a balanced mix of relaxation and energy, and has already shown efficacy in improving the memory of listeners; also, the fact that the song has no words creates less interference and distraction. In the second phase of the study, the researchers used pieces that the participants already knew (pop music) to see if appreciation of the piece of music provided patients with greater benefits than their ability to memorize.



    In the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, traditional drugs have very limited efficacy, leaving ample scope for non-medical therapies - such as music. Understanding the effective effectiveness of listening to music is important in developing specific guidelines that can help those caring for Alzheimer's patients to preserve their memories and, perhaps, to form new ones.

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    Source: Open University of Catalonia

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