Music and emotion in Alzheimer’s disease

[EN] Background: Alzheimer’s disease may compromise several musical competences, though no clear data is available in the scientific literature. Furthermore, music is capable of communicating basic emotions, but little is known about the emotional aspect of music in patients with Alzheimer’s disease...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Arroyo Anlló, Eva María, Dauphin, Stéphanie, Fargeau, M. Noelle, Ingrand, Pierre, Gil, Roger
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
Repositorio:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
OAI Identifier:oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/154872
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10366/154872
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Emotion
Music
Dementia
Memory
Prosody
Music Therapy
Neuropsychology
3205.07 Neurología
neuropsicología
musicoterapia
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Background: Alzheimer’s disease may compromise several musical competences, though no clear data is available in the scientific literature. Furthermore, music is capable of communicating basic emotions, but little is known about the emotional aspect of music in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. We present a systematic investigation of music processing in relation to extra-musical skills, in particular emotional skills in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Methods: We tested 30 patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease and 30 control subjects. We essentially evaluated (a) musical competences, using the extra-linguistic test, Solfeggio test and the recognition test of musical emotions—elaborated by our research team—and the Seashore test, and (b) emotional capacities using emotional memory and emotional prosody tests—made by our research group. Results: We significantly observed lower total results of every test assessing cognitive, emotional and music competences in Alzheimer’s disease patients than those in control subjects, but the score of musical emotion recognition test did not reach to a significant difference between the subjects groups. Conclusions: Our findings found a global impairment of music competences in Alzheimer patients with cognitive and emotional troubles. Nevertheless, the performances in the recognition test of musical emotions showed a trend towards a performance difference. We can suggest that Alzheimer’s disease currently presents an aphaso-agnoso- apractic-amusia syndrome.