Music Therapy: The Effects Of Listening To Music

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Music therapy is “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional” (AMTA). It is used for all age groups to help with problems with the physical emotional, cognitive, and social needs a person may have. It is particularly helpful for those who struggle to express themselves using words. Oliver Sacks once said, “Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity"
Listening to music can be very powerful for people who have lost their memory to Alzheimer 's or other forms of dementia. According to the Alzheimer 's Foundation of America, Alzheimer’s is a “progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain 's nerve cells, or neurons, resulting in loss of memory, thinking and language skills, and behavioral changes”. However, dementia is simply an umbrella term for memory loss (“What Is The Difference Between Alzheimer 's …show more content…

In the later stages of Alzheimer 's “short-term memory fails when Alzheimer 's disease first destroys nerve cells in the hippocampus, and language skills and judgment decline when neurons die in the cerebral cortex” (Alzheimer’s Foundation of America). Music is processed in both hemispheres of the brain, this means that is can actually help access language. Even people who are in the later stages of dementia can recall song lyrics and sing along, or at least hum along (Guy, J., & Neve, A). “Singing and moving to music stimulates both verbal and motor areas of the brain, and can foster periods of improved memory and mood in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease” (Clinical Research on the Benefits of

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