Although there have been increasing reports regarding the effectiveness of dual-task interventions in rehabilitation, the scope of this research is limited to gross motor movement, such as gait among patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). To expand the dual-task paradigm to upper extremity motor and attention control in PD, drum playing with modulation of musical elements was attempted. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a drum playing intervention with rhythmic cueing on upper extremity motor control and attention control in patients with PD. Twelve participants were randomly assigned to the drum playing intervention with rhythmic cueing group or the control group. The results showed that the drum playing with rhythmic cueing (DPRC) group significantly increased their sustained time of entrainment (45 BPM) and their latency time until entrainment from pretest to posttest. For the DPRC group, the latency time until entrainment was significantly improved, and improvements in cognitive measures were also found. This study shows that DPRC has great potential to improve upper extremity motor control and attention control and supports the development of new interventions that include this technique for rehabilitation in patients with PD.

Deficits in executive functioning are a common feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and result from impairment in the central executive system. As a result, elderly patients with early stage AD may require interventions that are more cognitively intense than traditional interventions. To address this need, in this multiple case study, we explored a dual-task-based music therapy intervention that involved drum playing and singing designed to induce attentional and motor controls. Three octogenarians diagnosed with early stage AD participated in 12 dual-task-based music therapy sessions over 6 weeks. Measures of executive functioning and the performance of a bimanual drum tapping task were evaluated before and after the intervention. Improvements in executive functioning were observed for participants A and C. After the intervention, reduced mean synchronization errors were found for the simultaneous tapping condition for all three participants. Although there was variability in the functional changes between participants, it is noteworthy that positive improvements in the elderly patients with early stage AD were obtained following dual-task-based music therapy. The results suggest that music therapy integrated into the dual-task paradigm can be an effective way to address degenerative cognitive deficits among elderly patients with early stage AD.