A new study published in Brain Sciences shows
that patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) can slow
the progress of the disease by participating in dance training with
music for one-and-a-quarter hours per week. Over the course of three
years, this activity was found to reduce daily motor issues such as
those related to balance and speech, which often lead to social
isolation.
Joseph
DeSouza, senior author, principal investigator and associate professor
in the Department of Psychology at York University and Ph.D. candidate
Karolina Bearss, found people with Parkinson's (PwPD) who participated
in weekly dance training,
had less motor impairment and showed significant improvement in areas
related to speech, tremors, balance and rigidity compared to those who
did not do any dance exercise. Their data showed significant
improvements in experiences of daily living, which include cognitive
impairment, hallucinations, depression and anxious mood such as sadness.
The study showed overall that non-motor aspects of daily living, motor
experiences of daily living, motor examination symptoms and motor
complications did not show any impairment across time among the
dance-trained PwPD group compared to PwPD who do not dance.
The
study is the first of its kind to follow PwPD over a three-year period
during weekly dance participation with music, providing additional
information regarding the nature of progression of motor and non-motor
PD symptoms.
"The
experience of performing and being in a studio environment with dance
instructors appears to provide benefits for these individuals," said
DeSouza. "Generally, what we know is that dance activates brain areas in
those without PD. For those with Parkinson's disease even when it's
mild motor impairment can impact their daily functioning—how they feel
about themselves. Many of these motor symptoms lead to isolation because
once they get extreme, these people don't want to go out. These motor
symptoms lead to further psychological issues, depression, social
isolation and eventually the symptoms do get worse over time. Our study
shows that training with dance and music can slow this down and improve
their daily living and daily function."
The
goal of the research was to create a long-term neurorehabilitation
strategy to combat the symptoms of PD. In the study, researchers looked
at how a multi-sensory activity, (like dance with music learning) which
incorporated the use and stimulation of several sensory modalities in
the dance environment including vision, audition, tactile perception,
proprioception, kinesthesia, social organization and expression,
olfactory, vestibular and balance control—may influence many of the
mood, cognitive, motor and neural challenges faced by PwPD.
Researchers
followed collected data from PwPD over three-and-a-half years while
they learned choreography over the first year and performed it, that is
designed to be adaptable to the disease stage and current symptoms for
PwPD.
In
the study, 16 participants with mild-to-moderate PD (11 males, five
females) with an average age of 69, were tested between October 2014 and
November 2017. They were matched for age and severity of disease. Each
participant took part in a 1.25-hour dance class at Canada's National
Ballet School (NBS) and Trinity St. Paul's church locations. Dancers
participated in dance exercises which provided both aerobic and
anaerobic movements. This group was then compared to 16 non-dance PwPD
participants (the reference group) chosen from a larger PwPD cohort from
the Parkinson's Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI), a longitudinal
research project funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's
Research (MJFF) and related funding partners.
Classes
began with live music accompaniment during the seated warm-up, followed
by barre work, and ended with moving across the floor. All participants
learned choreography for an upcoming performance. Researchers recorded
videos, conducted paper and pen questionnaires of all participants and
performed statistical analyses.
"Dance
is so complex, it's a multi-sensory type of environment," said Bearss.
"It incorporates and stimulates your auditory, tactile, visual and
kinesthetic senses and adds an interactive social aspect. Regular
exercise does not offer these aspects. There's so much more to dance."
Researchers
will next examine what occurs in the brain immediately before and after
a dance class to determine what neurological changes take place.
"Currently
there is no precise intervention with PD and usual remedies are
pharmacological interventions, but not many options are given for
alternate exercises or additional interventions to push their brains,"
said DeSouza. "Hopefully this data will shed light on additional
therapies for this group and be used in the treatment process. There may
be changes in the brain that occur with dance with music, but more
research is necessary."
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