Neuro Note 5-Dementia

 For my final Neuro Note, I decided to watch a documentary titled Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory.  I could not decide what I wanted to do my last Neuro Note on so I read through reviews left by classmates.  This review drew me in and I decided to watch the documentary to learn more for myself.  I also chose this topic as part of my assignment because I have done an internship where I was able to participate with residents in Memory Care and I did see that music plays a role in increasing their engagement.  I wanted to further my learning about what researchers have found in relation to memory, music, and interventions.

 

Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory is a documentary that shows elderly suffering from Dementia and their positive reactions to music.  In the opening scene, a woman with Dementia is being interviewed.  She mentions how she has memory loss and apologizes for not being able to answer questions.  The man responds saying he is going to try an experiment of playing music and letting her go back into time.  She instantly recognizes that it is Louis Armstrong and begins to tell the man about parts of her life she thought she had forgotten. 

The idea from this documentary is that music is connected to emotions and that people have a bond with music that cannot be broken, even if their memory starts to fade.  In the documentary we meet a man named Henry who struggles from Dementia but when he is given headphones he immediately has a strong reaction to the music and lights up the room around him, humming along to the tune.  We later meet another couple, Nell and Norm, who also believe in the power of music as a therapeutic outlet. Norm has been taking care of his wife, Nell, at home for almost 10 years without having to use any drugs. He keeps her mind stimulated by playing music for her.  This brings up the question of using music as therapy instead of just medicating people.  There is a struggle, however, because items like Ipods will not be reimbursed even though research shows the positive impacts of music.  At the end of the documentary Dan Cohen, the man leading the movement to provide music to those with Dementia, reveals that he has received a grant and so far there are 56 homes with music devices.  It is not as much as he would like, but it is a start.

 

From this documentary, I learned that there are parts of the brain involved in remembering music and responding to it that are not affected too much in Dementia.  The documentary reveals that music has more ability to activate more parts of the brain than any other stimulus.  It activates auditory, visual, and motor parts in the brain.  It appears that all humans attempt to keep time with music no matter age, gender, ethnicity, etc.  Another thing I learned about and found very interesting was how Nursing homes came about.  Nursing homes are a combination of Poorhouses and hospitals that became very popular after the Medicaid Act of 1965.  The documentary reflected on the fact that healthcare workers have some of the biggest hearts but they unfortunately view the people they see every day as patients first and humans second.  It is a truth that I think we don’t realize and an everyday cycle that I do not want to be dragged into.  I learned more on how patients are treated with anti-psychotic drugs when in fact music may be a much more simple solution that we should take the time to consider and research.  More advocacy is needed on this topic and I would highly recommend this documentary to others.  It was very heartwarming and eye opening.  It gave me a lot to think about on how we should treat others.

 

 

 

Reference

Rossato-Bennett, M. (Director). (2014, October 18). Alive inside: A story of music and memory

[Film].  Projector Media.