Benefits in Alzheimer’s Disease of Sensory and Multisensory Stimulation

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a serious neurodegenerative disease, which seriously affects behavior, cognition, and memory of patients. Studies have shown that sensory stimulation can effectively improve the cognition and memory of AD patients, and its role in brain plasticity and neural regulation is initially revealed. This paper aims to review the effect of various sensory stimulation and multisensory stimulation for AD, and to explain the possible mechanism, so as to provide some new ideas for further research in this field. We searched the Web of Science and PubMed databases (from 2000 to October 27, 2020) for literature on the treatment of AD with sensory stimulation, including music therapy, aromatherapy, rhythmic (e.g., visual or acoustic) stimulation, light therapy, multisensory stimulation, and virtual reality assisted therapy, then conducted a systematic analysis. Results show these sensory stimulations can effectively ameliorate the pathology of AD, arouse memory, and improve cognition and behaviors. Also, it can cause brain nerve oscillation, enhance brain plasticity, and regulate regional cerebral blood flow. Sensory stimulation is a very promising technology, and it plays an important role in the improvement and treatment of AD, but its potential mechanism and stimulation parameters need to be explored and improved.

Raga Therapy for Autism

“…[55]. There is a growing body of evidence showing benefits of music therapy in different neurological disorders such as Stroke [57], Parkinson's disease [58], Alzheimer's disease [59,60], dementia [61], epilepsy [62], and many other neurological conditions [2,63], including ASD [1,4,64]. Since music is engaging, emotional, physical, social, and persuasive tool, it promotes synchronization of various brain functions [2], it has a distinct ability to target ASD-specific core disabilities [36,65,66].…”

Auditory or Audiovisual Stimulation Ameliorates Cognitive Impairment and Neuropathology in ApoE4 Knock-In Mice

“…Given the failure of many drugs to target the pathology of AD [ 22 ] and the inadequacy and significant side-effects of the drugs currently in use, greater attention has been paid to nonpharmacologic interventions [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. These include common noninvasive stimulation, such as sensory, transcranial magnetic, and transcranial electrical (direct and alternating current) stimulation [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Sensory-based interventions are noninvasive and easy to achieve, do not cause side-effects, and are inexpensive, making them a promising approach to the treatment of AD [ 26 ].…”

The Effects of Sounds and Music on Cells and Organisms: A Promising and Developing Area of Research

“…Today, we are discovering the numerous effects it has on the brain and on organic functions. It is used in a care approach (music therapy) (Behzadmehr et al 2020, Billar et al 2020, Buglione et al 2020, Bulut et al 2020, Çelebi et al 2020, Chai et al 2020a, b, Cimen et al 2020, Chan et al 2020, Dai et al 2020, Ernberg et al 2020, Gamboa et al 2020, Garcia Guerra et al 2020, Giordano et al 2020, Gogoularadja and Bakshi 2020, Guo et al 2020, Howlin and Rooney 2020, Johnson and Elkins 2020, Köhler et al 2020, Pérez-Eizaguirre and Vergara-Moragues 2020, Polascik et al 2021, Saraogi et al 2020, Usui et al 2020, Dunbar et al 2021, Yang et al 2021), but its influence on well-being goes beyond the human being (Sambraus and Hecker 1985, Hurnik and Johnson 1997, Kenison 2016, Bowman et al 2017, González-Grajales et al 2019, Kemp 2020). In fact, many studies have described the various effects of music on different organisms (Lemarquis 2009, 2021, Dhungana et al 2018, Exbrayat and Brun 2019, Mayoud and Lemarquis 2019, Pulcrano and di Porzio 2021.…”