There's a powerful connection between music and memory. So much so, there's a program named just that -- It's tough to have a conversation with Socorro Kennedy, better knows as Miss Cora. She's 90 with dementia and often sits quietly all day.
That is, until the music in a pair of ear phones is turned on.
"She comes alive when you put that music on, from her toes to the top of her head," Naomi Mathes said.
The oldies playing are specifically researched and chosen for her, based on family interviews. Then they're tested and a full playlist is set.
"When you can no longer reach them with words, you can reach them with music," Mathes said.
Mathes is part of the Juliette Fowler Communities. She says music primes your brain to get active again.
"Music is one of the last things to leave that is connected with emotions and memories and is stored in multiple parts of the brain," she said.
Listening to music stimulates Cora's brain so much, she now responds to conversations. She even speaks full, recognizable words.
Although Cora wants more, Mathes said they have to limit her time with music or she will wear herself out.
Mathes says the ear phones are key. Blaring the music on a speaker comes with too many distractions and doesn't have the same affect.
With headphones, Cora gets lost in the moment -- proving that there's much joy left to share -- thanks to every beat, tap and clap.
Music
has an unmatched power to bring back our pasts. But what if our
memories have been lost to Alzheimer's or some other condition? Can
music still work its magic?
A new film, Alive Inside,
says yes. The film features the work of
Dan Cohen, a New York social worker who started taking personalized
iPods to people with dementia in nursing homes several years ago.
Cohen's non-profit Music & Memory got a huge boost in 2012 when an early clip
from the film, featuring a gentleman named Henry, became an online
sensation. It has been viewed more than 10 million times at various
websites, filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett says.
In the clip, Henry, then 94, is shown slumped and unresponsive in a wheelchair – until a nursing home worker places a set of headphones over his ears. Henry comes alive. He scats along with Cab Calloway and sings a soulful I'll Be Home for Christmas. The music "gives me the feeling of love, romance," he says.
Henry
has since passed away, but that clip is one big reason that the Music
& Memory program is in 640 nursing homes and assisted-living
facilities, Cohen says. He says he won't be satisfied until
personalized iPods – loaded with music especially chosen for each
participant – are in all 16,000 U.S. nursing homes, available to all 1.6
million residents.
"Ninety-nine percent of these people are still
sitting around and doing nothing all day when they could be rocking to
their music," he says.
The reasons for Cohen's passion become
clear in what Rossato-Bennett dubs "the only good-news film ever made
about Alzheimer's." In segment after segment, people with Alzheimer's
and other conditions don the headphones, hear the music of their youths
and light up. A World War II veteran named John dances in his chair as
the Andrews Sisters sing Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! Another man holds his wife's hands and sings a duet of Can't Take My Eyes Off of You. An agitated woman becomes serene as she dances to strains of Schubert.
Such
scenes are interspersed with comments from doctors, including the
neurologist Oliver Sacks, who says, "Music has more ability to activate
more parts of the brain than any other stimulus." Others talk about the
need to reconnect with lonely, inactive and neglected elders, in and
out of nursing homes.
Viewers might come away with the idea that a
skillfully loaded iPod is a proven and universally effective cure for
all that. In fact, the first big study of Music & Memory is just
getting underway in Wisconsin, as part of a state-funded rollout in 200
nursing homes. Researchers will look at whether the approach improves
social engagement and reduces agitation, anxiety and depression, say
University of Wisconsin researchers Jung Kwak and Michael Brondino. The
study won't focus on memory but will look at overall effects on
dementia, Brondino says. One thing they know, he says, is that staffs
and patients "absolutely love this program."
The program, which
relies on families and aides to work with patients, should not be
confused with formal music therapy delivered by professionals trained in
that discipline, says Alicia Clair, professor of music education and
therapy at the University of Kansas.
Still, she says, "it's a
wonderful thing" for many people. Caregivers need to know, she says,
that not everyone will respond and that some people can even respond
negatively. A song that stirs up sadness or anger might do more harm
than good, she says.
Cohen says, "This is not a cure for
Alzheimer's, and this does not work for everybody." But, he says, it is
something just about anyone can try – something that might open up a
whole lost world.
Cohen's tips for setting up an individualized music program and for donating used iPods to the program are at musicandmemory.org.
Alive Inside will open in theaters and be shown in film festivals around the country through mid-September.
There's a powerful connection between music and memory. So much so, there's a program named just that -- It's tough to have a conversation with Socorro Kennedy, better knows as Miss Cora. She's 90 with dementia and often sits quietly all day.
