How Therapeutic Drumming Helps Dementia Patients
Drumming and rhythm may offer some small comfort to those with dementia, early onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and their families It is often the case that music and rhythm can create moments, briefly, of apparent consciousness or recognition, even from an otherwise blank, expressionless, face.
Many evolutionary biologists believe music was fundamental in our ability to function as humans and hold together large communities of people, as music is capable of producing oxytocin, i. e., bonding and sharing emotions, on a massive scale. Over the past decade, researchers investigating treatments for dementia and Alzheimer’s have discovered the benefits of music as therapy. Thе 2014 documentary “Alive Inside” demonstrates the remarkable benefits music can have on patients with dementia.
For veterans, the drum becomes a voice of emotions for which words alone cannot express. Soldiers train in groups or platoons, go to war in groups, and then return to their individual lives alone. They miss a sense of camaraderie needed for recovery.
The drum is the instrument of the warrior. Strong. Percussive. Loud. It harkens to our strength with its tough skin stretched over a circular frame. The drum empowers veterans to transform themselves from disabled to capable.
Most Alzheimer’s patients typically keep their heads down. When drumming starts, often their heads begin to rise, their eyes begin to move. They become aware of the instruments, of the group, of the facilitator. And when they follow the instructions of the facilitator, to clap or tap, we recognize this as success before they even put hand to drum.
Dementia breaks down connections in patients’ brains, causing deterioration of basic mental functions. Drumming stimulates and challenges the brains of those patients, maintaining, and in some cases rebuilding, connections that have been lost.
Music also activates your medial prefrontal cortex, a brain region behind your forehead thought to be selectively involved in the retrieval of both long- and short-term memories. This is one of the last brain areas to atrophy among Alzheimer’s patients, which helps explain how music can help reactivate memories even in patients with Alzheimer’s, which is the most severe form of dementia.
The recollection of music can also help revive a dementia patient’s sense of identity, and help them reconnect with family members over shared memories. The success of the technique depends on nursing staff being able to figure out a patient’s musical preferences, which is why you may want to ask your aging relatives about their favorite songs now (or relay yours to your caregivers) just in case.
In summary, sound frequencies are the internal communication system for your brain. Different frequencies activate different brain regions, thereby affecting neurotransmitters and hormones. When it comes to memory, by tapping areas of your brain linked to both emotions and memory, music can act as a back door to help you access past events that would otherwise be lost
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