Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism
Music is frequently regarded as a unique way to connect with dementia patients. Yet little is known about how persons with dementia respond emotionally to music. Are their responses different from those of healthy listeners? If so, why? The present study makes a first attempt to tackle these issues...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2021-04-01
|
| Series: | Music & Science |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043211010152 |
| _version_ | 1818943161263718400 |
|---|---|
| author | Gonçalo T. Barradas Patrik N. Juslin Sergi Bermúdez i Badia |
| author_facet | Gonçalo T. Barradas Patrik N. Juslin Sergi Bermúdez i Badia |
| author_sort | Gonçalo T. Barradas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Music is frequently regarded as a unique way to connect with dementia patients. Yet little is known about how persons with dementia respond emotionally to music. Are their responses different from those of healthy listeners? If so, why? The present study makes a first attempt to tackle these issues in a Portuguese context, with a focus on psychological mechanisms. In Experiment 1, featuring 20 young and healthy adults, we found that musical excerpts which have previously been shown to activate specific emotion induction mechanisms (brain stem reflex, contagion, episodic memory, musical expectancy) in Sweden were valid and yielded predicted emotions also in Portugal, as indexed by self-reported feelings, psychophysiology, and post hoc mechanism indices. In Experiment 2, we used the same stimuli to compare the responses of 20 elderly listeners diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with those of 20 healthy listeners. We controlled for cognitive functioning (Mini-Mental State Examination) and depression (Geriatric Depression Scale). Our predictions about how mechanisms would be differentially affected by decline in brain regions associated with AD received support in that AD patients reported significantly lower levels of (a) sadness in the contagion condition, (b) happiness and nostalgia in the episodic memory condition, and (c) anxiety in the musical expectancy condition. By contrast, no significant difference in reported surprise was found in the brain stem reflex condition. Implications for musical interventions aimed at dementia are discussed, highlighting the key role that basic research may play in developing applications. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T07:22:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1979a59953e94535a926efa595a60cff |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2059-2043 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T07:22:55Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Music & Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-1979a59953e94535a926efa595a60cff2022-12-21T19:48:37ZengSAGE PublishingMusic & Science2059-20432021-04-01410.1177/20592043211010152Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the MechanismGonçalo T. Barradas0Patrik N. Juslin1Sergi Bermúdez i Badia2 Department of Psychology, , Uppsala, Sweden Department of Psychology, , Uppsala, Sweden Faculty of Exact Sciences and Engineering, Madeira University, Funchal, PortugalMusic is frequently regarded as a unique way to connect with dementia patients. Yet little is known about how persons with dementia respond emotionally to music. Are their responses different from those of healthy listeners? If so, why? The present study makes a first attempt to tackle these issues in a Portuguese context, with a focus on psychological mechanisms. In Experiment 1, featuring 20 young and healthy adults, we found that musical excerpts which have previously been shown to activate specific emotion induction mechanisms (brain stem reflex, contagion, episodic memory, musical expectancy) in Sweden were valid and yielded predicted emotions also in Portugal, as indexed by self-reported feelings, psychophysiology, and post hoc mechanism indices. In Experiment 2, we used the same stimuli to compare the responses of 20 elderly listeners diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with those of 20 healthy listeners. We controlled for cognitive functioning (Mini-Mental State Examination) and depression (Geriatric Depression Scale). Our predictions about how mechanisms would be differentially affected by decline in brain regions associated with AD received support in that AD patients reported significantly lower levels of (a) sadness in the contagion condition, (b) happiness and nostalgia in the episodic memory condition, and (c) anxiety in the musical expectancy condition. By contrast, no significant difference in reported surprise was found in the brain stem reflex condition. Implications for musical interventions aimed at dementia are discussed, highlighting the key role that basic research may play in developing applications.https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043211010152 |
| spellingShingle | Gonçalo T. Barradas Patrik N. Juslin Sergi Bermúdez i Badia Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism Music & Science |
| title | Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism |
| title_full | Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism |
| title_fullStr | Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism |
| title_short | Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism |
| title_sort | emotional reactions to music in dementia patients and healthy controls differential responding depends on the mechanism |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043211010152 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT goncalotbarradas emotionalreactionstomusicindementiapatientsandhealthycontrolsdifferentialrespondingdependsonthemechanism AT patriknjuslin emotionalreactionstomusicindementiapatientsandhealthycontrolsdifferentialrespondingdependsonthemechanism AT sergibermudezibadia emotionalreactionstomusicindementiapatientsandhealthycontrolsdifferentialrespondingdependsonthemechanism |