Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-11-2018
Department
Faculty of Music
Abstract
Due to advances in medical knowledge the population of older adults struggling with issues of aging like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and stroke is growing. There is a need for therapeutic interventions to provide adaptive strategies to sustain quality of life, decrease neurologic impairment, and maintain or slow cognitive decline and function due to degenerative neurologic diseases. Musical interventions with adults with cognitive impairments have received increased attention over the past few years, such as the value of personalized music listening in the iPod project for AD; music as a tool to decrease agitation and anxiety in dementia; and music to aid in episodic memory; Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation as rehabilitation for PD; and recently the potential of 40Hz sensory brain stimulation with AD and PD. These approaches indicate the expanding scope and efficacy of music therapy and the potential mechanisms involved. This paper explicates a four-level model of mechanisms of music response that may help understand current music therapy approaches and treatments and help focus future research. Each level will be illustrated with research and suggestions for research directions.
Recommended Citation
Clements-Cortés A and Bartel L (2018) Are We Doing More Than We Know? Possible Mechanisms of Response to Music Therapy. Front. Med. 5:255. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2018.00255
Comments
Copyright © 2018 Clements-Cortés and Bartel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.