EXPLORING MUSIC & MEMORY:
An Interprofessional Partnership in Care
The study took place at Huger, a 48-bed assisted living facility in Phoenix under the auspices of Barrow Neurological Institute, which provides directed care for persons living with ADRD. Huger residents and staff, family members of the Huger residents, and musicians from the Phoenix Symphony were research participants. In addition, the musicians helped create the project’s music events. The first phase of the study included a series of focus groups to determine how music might impact the residents with dementia, their family caregivers, the staff and the musicians. After conducting a review of the literature and obtaining Institutional Review Board approval, the research team began with a goal of measuring mood and behavior immediately before and after music-based events.
D
r. David W. Coon, associate dean and professor at ASU’s College of Nursing & Health Innovation, has been tackling Alzheimer’s disease research since early in his career. Coon’s latest project grew out his involvement with the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium led by Eric Reiman, Executive Director of the Banner Alzheimer Institute and University Professor of Neuroscience at ASU. Last year, Reiman convened a meeting connecting Coon, The Phoenix Symphony, and other interested colleagues to begin developing and implementing a pilot study of music’s impact on people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The symphony’s interest in ADRD is reflected in its recent award from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation to develop The B-Sharp Music Wellness, a W.O.N.D.E.R. Project: Alzheimer’s Expansion Pilot Initiative program. Key investigators with Coon on the project team were Marianne McCarthy, associate professor at the College of Nursing & Health Innovation (pictured above); Robin Rio, associate professor of Music Therapy in the School of Music at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts; Lisa O’Toole, manager of Huger Mercy Living Center; and Michael Todd and Darya McClain, associate research professors in the College of Nursing & Health Innovation.
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Innovations in Nursing & Health
The measures included resident emotional well-being and behavior as well as the emotional well-being of caregivers, staff, and the musicians. Over a six-week period, groups of symphony musician volunteers went to Huger to play for the residents. ASU music therapy students, a DNP nursing student, and Huger staff members assisted during the music events, many of which took place in the residents’ cottages. In most cases, residents became actively involved, dancing, clapping, tapping a drum, or singing. Initial results showed significant increases in positive mood and reductions in negative mood before and after music events. Musicians, staff, and residents submitted to saliva tests at different time points across the project to measure certain biomarkers that indicate behavioral arousal, both positive and negative. Coon reported that while the results are preliminary, changes in biomarkers appear related to positive energetic mood. The results also suggest that music may have enabled the residents to better regulate their stress response before and after a stressful event, such as showering. “One of the most fascinating pieces to me was watching these relationships develop between musicians and the individuals who are on the journey of dementia,” Coon said. “To see that connection happen, to observe music as a vehicle to help trigger long-term memories and bridge gaps in the moment, and to connect to someone in a way when they’ve struggled to connect—all that is pretty powerful.”