Individualization of music‐based rhythmic auditory cueing in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Gait dysfunctions in Parkinson's disease can be partly relieved by rhythmic auditory cueing. This consists in asking patients to walk with a rhythmic auditory stimulus such as a metronome or music. The effect on gait is visible immediately in terms of increased speed and stride length. Moreover, training programs based on rhythmic cueing can have long-term benefits. The effect of rhythmic cueing, however, varies from one patient to the other. Patients' response to the stimulation may depend on rhythmic abilities, often deteriorating with the disease. Relatively spared abilities to track the beat favor a positive response to rhythmic cueing. On the other hand, most patients with poor rhythmic abilities either do not respond to the cues or experience gait worsening when walking with cues. An individualized approach to rhythmic auditory cueing with music is proposed to cope with this variability in patients' response. This approach calls for using assistive mobile technologies capable of delivering cues that adapt in real time to patients' gait kinematics, thus affording step synchronization to the beat. Individualized rhythmic cueing can provide a safe and cost-effective alternative to standard cueing that patients may want to use in their everyday lives.

A model of different cognitive processes during spontaneous and intentional coupling to music in multiple sclerosis

“…To differentiate these types, a recent study investigated if healthy subjects synchronized their steps to music when uninstructed and instructed, and concluded that instruction was required for synchronization to occur. 11 This finding is consistent with previous studies in healthy controls (HCs) and in persons with PD 12,13 as well. Yet, in these studies, the motor thresholds where participants were asked to walk was set at either 5%, 10%, 13 and 10%, 15% 11 above or below their usual walking frequency.…”

A silent disco: Differential effects of beat-based and pattern-based temporal expectations on persistent entrainment of low-frequency neural oscillations

“…Also, we only observed enhanced power at the beat frequency following beat-based sequences in about half of the participants, in line with individual differences in reliance on beat-based perception. Understanding individual differences in temporal expectations is therefore an important direction for future research, with significant implications for applications of musical rhythm, such as in motor rehabilitation (Dalla Bella, Dotov, Bardy, & Cochen De Cock, 2018).…”

Cellists’ sound quality is shaped by their primary postural behavior

“…For example, sonification efficiently reduced the variability of golf swing gestures in novices 118,119 , or improved the pedal force effectiveness among cyclists 120 . The beneficial effects of sonification in reeducating patients with severe gait dysfunctions, such as Parkinson's disease patients, by rhythmic auditory cueing [21][22][23]121 , or neuromotor deficits related to the fluency of handwriting, such as dysgraphia [122][123][124][125][126] , were also well recognized. In the same way, we suppose that such continuous auditory feedback may help musicians and dancers improve or recover their body awareness, for example, through experiments of sound tracing and motor mimicry, which are already known to stimulate covert mental images associated with musical experience 58,81,127,128 .…”

“…In dance practice, conversely, the mirror neuron system may decode the perceived expressiveness into fine movement structures through the same kind of grounded synergetic processes [16][17][18] . In the domain of rehabilitation, rhythmic auditory stimuli were efficient in reducing movement disorders and improving walking abilities in Parkinson's disease and stroke patients [19][20][21][22][23] .…”