The use of music in recovery programs after trauma and stroke and also in people with degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is increasingly widespread
When it goes to the rhythm of music, the neurorehabilitation achieves better results and faster. The beneficial effects of this combination of music and rehabilitation are evident for a wide range of disorders, as emerges from a series of research published in an issue of the journal Neurorehabilitation dedicated to the use of music in rehabilitation programs for people suffering from disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, or the sequelae of thead rauma or stroke.
“The use of music-based neurorehabilitation interventions was virtually unknown 25 years ago,” says Michael Thaut, director of the Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory, of the Faculty of Music and Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. «Since then, a growing number of research has shown that stimuli rhythmic and musical interventions help improve mobility in disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, and that music-based interventions have now become an essential ingredient of effective neurorehabilitation programs. For example, the technique called “Auditory rhythmic stimulation” has already been adopted by several US and Canadian official guidelines for the treatment of stroke outcomes ».
Affective disorders
In fact, in many cases, those who have suffered a stroke find themselves having to overcome outcomes concerning the motor sphere, but also affective and mood disorders, as well as problems of type cognitive, perceptive and communicative. The increased survival and improvement of life expectancy of these people, due to the advancement of rescue systems and treatments, requires more and more effective rehabilitation interventions. Catherine Haire of the Faculty of Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory, of the University of Toronto reports in this special issue of the journal the result of a randomized and controlled trial that showed the effectiveness of a technique called Therapeutic instrumental music performance (TIMP) in improving the mental flexibility and motor performance of people who had suffered a stroke. The technique is based on the patient’s use of simple musical instruments to improve his neuromotor performance. Active training through musical instruments also has a positive impact on the emotional response »says Catherine Haire. “These are changes that also occur regardless of whether or not there are improvements at the cognitive level.” These very encouraging results will now have to be further explored on larger samples and also using more articulated neuropsychological assessment tools. In another study, carried out on boys with autism, Aparna Nadig of the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University in Montreal highlighted how a music-based intervention made it possible to obtain favorable behavioral changes. Compared to the control group that did not have access to musical neurorehabilitation, the boys treated with this technique had greater relationships both with other boys and with the therapist and were more active from a motor point of view.
An alternative approach
“Taken together, these results provide initial evidence in autistic children for the existence of active ingredients in music-based interventions,” says Aparna Nadig. Looking to future perspectives, Michael Thaut believes that the use of neurorehabilitation techniques based on the use of music will facilitate the transition from a simple therapeutic approach to a real training to learning, with the aim of making people more and more autonomous. . “The future challenges will consist in being able to develop approaches and build technologies that can integrate the use of music for the treatment of neurological disorders through forms of telemedicine, in order to reach more and more people who may not have easy access to neurorehabilitation services” concludes. A possibility that proves even more useful in times of pandemic, with many people forced to remain closed at home.
October 1, 2021 (change October 1, 2021 | 18:20)
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