Music reaches through dementia

People with dementia lose memories and communication skills, but research shows they retain the ability to recognise music even as other cognitive abilities deteriorate.

Sisters discover music's power

Min Luo, twelve, and nine-year-old Fei Shan noticed their family friend with dementia became calm and engaged when they played piano, tapping his hand in time with the rhythm.

“And I think he really enjoyed that moment and I really treasure it as well.”

Sisters take music to care homes

The girls decided to share the joy music brings by visiting aged care facilities to perform for residents with dementia. Music is like a language that mostly everyone can understand, Fei said.

“Music is like a language that mostly everyone can understand.”

Resident feels alive again

At Korongee Dementia Village in Hobart's northern suburbs, seventy-five-year-old Nick Dickens, who has frontotemporal and vascular dementia, says the sisters' music makes him feel alive and brings back good feelings.

“The old stress goes out the window … it just makes you feel alive.”

Music circuits resist dementia

Associate Professor Alison Canty from the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre says the brain region responsible for musical memory is resilient to dementia's progression and does not shrink like other areas.

“We don't get the same shrinkage or deterioration of the circuits in that region, and we don't know why.”

Music releases dopamine

Music releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that enhances mood and reduces anxiety and stress. It can also help people with dementia who have not spoken for some time to interact and communicate.

“It's kind of another way in, to start interacting and communicating with somebody who's living with dementia.”

Sisters plan fundraising concert

In two thousand twenty-five, dementia was named the leading cause of death in Australia.By twenty sixty-five, almost one point one million people are predicted to have it.