Parkinson, Dopamine and Music
Does music release dopamine?
In my last post I considered symptoms and causes. Today it clicked. We know that the cause of Parkinson’s is in simple terms a deterioration in the nerve cells which hinders transmission of dopamine needed for fluent motion of the limbs etc. I figured that if dopamine is released by music, making music should ease the symptoms of Parkinson’s. My latest literature on music therapy is from 2008. So I googled my question and found various articles. A report in BBC news from January 9, 2011 about the first study on this question done by researchers at McGill University in Montreal had tested dopamine production in response to music. This gave me a clue when the research was done. Scanning through other articles that reported on this brought me to the conclusion that the focus of research was on how listeners to music can achieve the feel-good experience with music.
For me this confirms that there is a connection between dopamine release and music. The gist is that dopamine is released depending how much we like the music. So it is not music per se. The links below give you more (very basic) information.
https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/your-brain-on-music/
Robert Jourdain in his book Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy in chapter 9 also describes how music affects people differently depending on their background.
My caveat is that while for working to ease Parkinson’s symptoms this basic information can be helpful, it is not necessarily applicable to other health challenges. In my experience, illnesses like mood disorders may have to be tackled quite differently. I will address this in detail in a future blog about depression.
The information is very useful for anyone who likes to plan for the eventuality of dementia. Making up a playlist of favorite music and songs can be helpful to maintain long term memory for some time. It is also very helpful for caregivers and family of people with dementia. The list of songs (and hymns) should also be complemented with printed versions (or saved downloads) that can be sung for, or with the patient. Songs that were popular seven or more decades ago, are now often forgotten and difficult to find. There are many stories out there about people who appeared to be in a vegetative state that were ‘woken up’ upon hearing their songs and began moving to the rhythm or even ‘sang’ along.
Reflections 