Does a Live Performance Impact Synchronization to Musical Rhythm in Cognitively Impaired Elderly?
Résumé
Background
Music-based interventions appear to be efficient non-pharmacological approaches to improve emotional, social, and cognitive functioning of patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD).
Objectives
Because the benefits seem to increase with patients motor involvement, we studied the ability to move in synchrony with musical rhythms and more specifically the impact of live performance compared to video recording of a musician on sensorimotor abilities in patients with cognitive impairments (AD, vascular and mixed dementia) and in patients with no evidence of cognitive impairments.
Methods
Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) to a metronomic or a musical stimulus was assessed in patients when they were viewing a live musician or his pre-recorded video.
Results
Participants were better at synchronizing to a metronome than to music but this effect was modulated by the social context. While SMS to a metronome was better when facing a video than a live performance, there was no impact of the social context on SMS to music. Lastly, we found no group differences on SMS.
Conclusion
The decrease in synchronization ability to metronome in the live performance may be due to the social pressure associated with the presence of the musician. Such a pressure might be removed in pleasant and ecological social activities, like moving with music, explaining the lack of the social context effect on SMS to music. Remarkably, the group with cognitive impairments performed no worse than the group without cognitive impairments, which suggests relatively spared SMS abilities in these patients. By showing that it is possible to encourage a patient to synchronize with others, even in front of a video, the results of our study indicate that SMS can be used as a relevant predictor in clinical trials and open up promising therapeutic options for patients living in remote areas.
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