{"id":89,"date":"2019-10-06T21:27:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T21:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/?p=89"},"modified":"2019-11-04T00:02:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T00:02:46","slug":"music-therapy-and-parkinsons-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/2019\/10\/06\/music-therapy-and-parkinsons-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Therapy and Parkinson’s Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In recent years, there has been an increase in research testing the positive effects music has on someone with Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/a>. Elizabeth Stegemoller is a music therapist with an Ph.D. in neuroscience and has been studying the connection between music and Parkinson\u2019s disease for the last six years. The photo titled \u201cMusic Therapy\u2019s effect on Parkinson\u2019s Disease\u201d shows what her and her research team have come to discover through their research over the last several years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  Photo received from \u201cResearch finds music therapy benefits those with Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/a>\u201d<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Through her research, Professor\nStegemoller has found that music therapy helps to improve brain activity in many\nways. For one, when a person listens to a type of music they enjoy, the\nchemical dopamine is released<\/a>.  Not only\nis dopamine an essential neurotransmitter for brain activity, this chemical helps\nwith movement, motor control, attention, learning, and emotional responses. Professor\nStegemoller and her team has also found that the rhythm in music helps to improve\nthe creation of neurological connections by causing the neurons in the brain\u2019s synapses\nto fire at the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo received from \u201cWhat is Dopamine and How Does it affect the Brain and the Body<\/a>\u201d<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The leading cause of death for someone with Parkinson\u2019s disease is due to complications with muscles in the neck, ie swallowing, breathing etc. During Professor Stegemoller\u2019s research, she has formed a singing group for her music therapy participants. The group participates in vocal and choral exercises. Participants in these exercises have shown improvement in their ability to talk and swallow. \u00a0The group singing activity also shown unexpected improvements elsewhere. Professor Stegemoller found that after an hour of singing, the participants had an improvement in aspects that are not related to singing at all such as a lessening of their tremors and an improvement in their overall manner of walking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Stegemoller is not the only one to believe that music therapy helps individuals with Parkinson\u2019s disease.  The National Institute of Health (NIH) has been awarded $20 million dollars over the course of 5 years<\/a> to support research in music treating a wide range of conditions including neurological conditions such as Parkinson\u2019s disease. Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. director of NIH, stated that furthering the research on exactly why music has a positive effect on neurological disorders will help to improve the understanding of music therapy. In turn, improving it’s effectiveness of using it as a way to improve the quality of life for the millions of people who suffer from neurological and other disorders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years, there has been an increase in research testing the positive effects music has on someone with Parkinson\u2019s disease. Elizabeth Stegemoller is a music therapist with an Ph.D. in neuroscience and has been studying the connection between music… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14929,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14929"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/katelynnj307t\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}