Musical Stimulation With Feedback in Gait Training for Parkinson's Disease

Journal

Psychomusicology

Year

2017

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of musical feedback on the stride length of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). To do that, we extended the concept of rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) with interactive musical feedback (MF). The comparison between RAS, MF, and no stimulation was conducted on a sample of 15 PD patients in a randomized repeated measures design. All 3 interventions included verbal instructions to make long steps. As a countercheck, a further investigation with the same design was conducted on 10 healthy participants matched for age, sex, and height. In the MF condition, as the stride length increased, the complexity of the music increased over 5 different levels, ranging from a simple beat to a full orchestral sound. We hypothesized that MF, operating on a fast, nearly automatic level, fosters a greater stride length than the other conditions. Both PD and healthy participants confirmed our hypothesis in the within-subjects comparison. For patients, MF was significantly more effective than the other conditions; for healthy participants, MF did not show significance, but had nonetheless a small effect size. Our results encourage further research on the role of musical feedback as a therapeutic device.

Music and Health Institute Terms

Gait; Mobility; Music Medicine; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Observational Measures; Parkinson's Disease; Recreative Music Methods; Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation

Indexed Terms

Psychology; Rehabilitation; Studies; Parkinson's disease; Rhythm; Feedback; Gait training

Study Type

Randomized Controlled; Trial; Quantitative Methods

Document Type

Article

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