Some music inspires you to move your feet, some inspires you to get out there and change the world. In any case, and to move hurriedly on to the point of this article, it's fair to say that music moves people in special ways.
If you're especially into a piece of music, your brain does something called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), which feels to you like a tingling in your brain
or scalp. It's nature's own little "buzz", a natural reward, that is
described by some as a "head orgasm". Some even think that it explains
why people go to church, for example, "feeling the Lord move through
you", but that's another article for another time.
Turns out that ASMR is pretty special. According to a recently published study in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease
(catchy name!), the part of your brain responsible for ASMR doesn't get
lost to Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's tends to put people into layers of
confusion, and the study confirms that music can sometimes actually lift
people out of the Alzheimer's haze and bring them back to (at least a semblance of) normality... if only for a short while. ASMR is powerful stuff!
This
phenomenon has been observed several times but rarely studied properly.
One of the most famous examples of this is the story of Henry, who
comes out of dementia while listening to songs from his youth:Jeff Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in Radiology at the Univerity of Utah Health and contributing author on the study, says "In our society, the diagnoses of dementia are snowballing and are taxing resources to the max. No one says playing music will be a cure for Alzheimer's disease, but it might make the symptoms more manageable, decrease the cost of care and improve a patient's quality of life."
Full Article & Source:
Study: Memories of music cannot be lost to Alzheimer's and dementia
My Mom lived with me the last 4 months of her life. She had Alzheimer's and pulmonary fibrosis. I love classical music and have many recorded selections from a wide variety of artists. I played them for her and got the day worker who stayed with her when I was at work, to do the same thing. The music wasn't constant, by any means, but it was often on. I had no idea why then, but it did seem to soothe her and make her happier. During her last days, I had a small player in her room, and kept it on most of the time. I felt it played a part in a peaceful death process.
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