An ethnomusicologist's perspective: A potential experimental model to revive long‐term memories of the Alzheimer's patient through individualized music and the amygdala pathway

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundSince a significant symptom of Alzheimer's is memory loss caused through the aggregation of beta‐amyloid, the ethnomusicologist is in a unique position to potentially recover some long‐term memories by developing the personalized music history one patient at a time. The idea is to bypass the amyloid aggregates, accessing the amygdala, therefore using the patient's emotions to recover their memories through their own music and their associative strengths. A song or a strain of music can transport anybody in the world with the functional hearing ability to a place in time retrieving those memories. Instead of sedating a patient, their own music may be better. My case study involved one individual diagnosed with dementia. Being familiar with the patient for a few decades, I pieced together her music history which I treated as a part of her medical history since the music memory resides in the brain. Her cognition and joy increased significantly over the year, according to her and her family. I videotaped some sessions. More research is needed to establish whether my method of individualized music history and memory recollection increases the quality of life of the patient or not. For further research, I propose inviting an ethnomusicologist to build a music profile of a number of Alzheimer's patients the neurologists are treating at a clinic. The music profile will include a playlist of songs or instrumental music that transports the patient to particular memories. The sound database could also include non‐musical sounds that generate memories e.g. the sounds of a drill, a barking dog, etc.. To access the patients’ memories the ethnomusicologist would need to do extensive interviews with the patients, family members, and friends, and look at their music collections. The process of building a music profile of the Alzheimer’s patient for treatment by a neurologist can, therefore, be done globally where the ethnomusicologist teams up with the medical staff.