Music to One’s Ears: Familiarity and Music Engagement in People With Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex diagnosis commonly associated with motor dysfunction, but known to comprise cognitive, psychiatric, and mood disturbances as well. Music has been successfully used to address motor and non-motor symptoms of PD. Still, little is known about the nature of an individual with PD’s experience and relationship with music on conceptual and emotional levels, which may factor into their engagement in music-based techniques to ameliorate impairments. Two surveys were administered to 19 individuals with PD and 15 individuals without PD in order to gauge their subjective impressions and valuations of music. Participants completed The Brief Music Experience Questionnaire (BMEQ), a standard self-report measure pertaining to the role of music in one’s life, prior to performing a perception task which involved listening to and making sound adjustments to three music recordings. Following the perception task, a custom Exit Survey was administered to evaluate the experience of listening to and engaging with the music in the perception task. In all six dimensions of the BMEQ, examining aspects of music experience including commitment to music, self-reported musical aptitude, social uplift, affective reactions, positive psychotropic effects, and reactive musical behavior (RMB, pertaining to actions or behaviors in response to music), the mean and the median were greater for the control group than for the PD group, but the difference was only statistically significant in the RMB dimension. On the Exit Survey, both groups assessed recent, specific, and interactive music listening more positively than the imagined, hypothetical or general music experiences addressed on the BMEQ. Additionally, familiarity had a greater effect on listening pleasure for participants with PD than those without PD. We conclude that people with PD may perceive less of an automatic connection between music and activity than their healthy peers. Additionally, they may receive more pleasure and value from music than they anticipate. Taken together, our results suggest that people with PD may require encouragement to participate as well as empowerment to choose familiar selections in order to better access music-based interventions and the benefits they can offer.

Music Therapy and Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review from 2015–2020

“…Taken together, these results suggest that people with PD may require encouragement to participate, as well as to the ability to choose familiar selections to better access music-based interventions and the benefits they may offer. This may facilitate adherence to therapy, as music is engaging and enjoyable [ 34 ], improves mood, depressive syndromes [ 48 ], and thus improves the quality of life for people with PD [ 49 , 50 ].…”

An Overview of Acoustic-Based Interventions to Improve Motor Symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease

“…Music listening not only activates emotional networks but also stimulates dopamine production in the striatal system (Salimpoor et al, 2011). Emotions and physical movements are closely intertwined (Molnar-Szakacs and Overy, 2006), hence there are suggestions that motor improvements following music intervention may be a result of emotional reactions mediating the dopaminergic activity of the BG motor loop (Salimpoor et al, 2011;Morris et al, 2019). A recent PET study by Koshimori et al (2019) explored RAS-induced dopamine responses in the BG of healthy participants while they performed finger-tapping tasks.…”

“…This study, therefore, provided insights about the potential role of RAS to modulate dopamine responses in PD and warrant future studies with PD patients. Morris et al (2019) surveyed the music responses of people with and without PD. They observed that PD patients had a diminished connection between music and action, compared to controls who perceived music as a reward and felt motivated to sing or dance along.…”

“…Morris et al ( 2019 ) surveyed the music responses of people with and without PD. They observed that PD patients had a diminished connection between music and action, compared to controls who perceived music as a reward and felt motivated to sing or dance along.…”

Music as Add-On Therapy in the Rehabilitation Program of Parkinson’s Disease Patients—A Romanian Pilot Study

“…Familiar music favors prediction and anticipation [ 18 ]. Moreover, preferred familiar music gives greater enjoyment and increases emotional engagement as well as compliance with the rehabilitation training programs [ 25 , 26 ].…”