.
“I think it’s definitely helpful in keeping them centred and, I guess, giving them something to focus on if they may not know where they are, if they’re in an unfamiliar environment. I think it’s nice having some music or some sort of background noise going.”
“It’s very central to being a human, music.”
Dr Sam Mehr, a senior lecturer at Auckland University’s School of Psychology, saw the same spark in his father-in-law, who had Alzheimer’s disease.
“One of the things that I really noticed about him when he was towards the end of his life is that, you know, he didn’t remember very much, but he always remembered all the songs that he grew up singing, and one of the few things that we would all do together regularly was sing songs,” he says.
Mehr’s Music Lab had been given an $853,000 grant from the Marsden Fund to research the effects of music on people with dementia.
“We’re really interested to find out, when people have dementia and start to lose some of their cognitive abilities, they start to lose their memories, might have some trouble remembering words or people’s names, whether their ability to engage with music is preserved.
“In the perception side of the study, we’re going to be running some short gamified experiments with dementia patients directly, where we provide easy-to-understand, fun experimental tasks that probe what the auditory abilities are.”
In one example, patients were asked to identify which of three melodies was out of tune.
In another, two clips were played alongside rhythmic beeps, and patients were asked to choose which was most on beat.
The other side of the study would involve interviewing front-line carers about how they use music to interact with patients, Mehr says.
Music therapist Colette Jansen.
Joshua William Photography
Mehr’s research is an exciting opportunity to gather real evidence about the benefits of music, says music therapist Colette Jansen, who says it helps her connect with the inner experience of clients with dementia.
“It’s more than just playing them the song and whether you get a reaction or not. It’s tapping into their personal life, their private life. As dementia takes hold, people can become more withdrawn and quieter, so it takes a little more to actually draw them out,” she says.
Participating in jam sessions allows them to express themselves in ways they would otherwise struggle to.
“I have a little box of hand percussion instruments that I take along, tambourines or shakers. The joy that they get from being able to shake that shaker or tap that tambourine or make a noise to express themselves is huge. The laughter.”
Mehr says that while he’s grateful to receive the new funding, he regrets that other research projects hadn’t been given the same opportunity.
“Currently in New Zealand, our ability to do science like this is diminishing because the government has been reducing the number of Marsden grants that they are funding.
“We’re very grateful that the Marsden Fund is paying for this research. I think it’s going to be a really great project. I think it’s going to produce some important science. However, I think there’s a lot of other science that could have been funded that hasn’t been.”
Mehr hopes that the government will eventually change its tune.
