Music Provides a Roadmap to Memory
Music therapist uses notes to 'open windows' for patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease
For families dealing with a loved one diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's, just to recapture a moment with that person as they knew them in healthier days is a golden goal. Terri Presser, a music therapist at Tudor Oaks in Muskego, has been a witness to such moments, and says it's the power of music that is at work. Presser has worked in the field for 15 years, and has used music to reach patients far into the progression of these memory-robbing diseases. "It's literally all in your head," she explained, pointing to the science of the connection between music and helping a patient 'come back' from an often wordless existence. Music 'processing' is one of the jobs of the prefrontal cortex in our brains, which lies just behind the …
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