Moving with music for stroke rehabilitation: a sonification feasibility study

Abstract

Gross-motor impairments are common after stroke, but efficacious and motivating therapies for these impairments are scarce. We present a novel musical sonification therapy especially designed to retrain gross-motor functions. Four stroke patients were included in a clinical pre-post feasibility study and were trained with our sonification training. Patients' upper-extremity functions and their psychological states were assessed before and after training. The four patients were subdivided into two groups, with both groups receiving 9 days of musical sonification therapy (music group, MG) or a sham sonification training (control group, CG). The only difference between these training protocols was that, in the CG, no sound was played back. During the training the patients initially explored the acoustic effects of their arm movements, and at the end of the training the patients played simple melodies by moving their arms. The two patients in the MG improved in nearly all motor function tests after the training. They also reported in the stroke impact scale, which assesses well-being, memory, thinking, and social participation, to be less impaired by the stroke. The two patients in the CG did benefit less from the movement training. Taken together, musical sonification may be a promising therapy for impairments after stroke.

Enriching footsteps sounds in gait rehabilitation in chronic stroke patients: a pilot study

“…[50][51][52] Furthermore, pairing movements with sounds using instruments (music playing) and sonification of movements have been recently shown to be possible candidates for improvement of motor deficits in acute and chronic patients. [20][21][22][23] Overall, these techniques rely on the establishment of fast auditory-motor mappings as well as auditory feedback processing during music performance (or movement sonification). These mechanisms seem to be responsible for the enhanced neural plasticity of premotor and motor regions encountered in stroke patients after music training.…”

Training proprioception with sound: effects of real‐time auditory feedback on intermodal learning

“…[8][9][10][11][12] Strong influence of real-time auditory feedback on motor performance was thought to be due to its influence over the proprioceptive modality. [13][14][15][16] Hasegawa et al, 16 for instance, reported that training with auditory augmented biofeedback might facilitate the integration of auditory and proprioceptive systems. The authors suggested that the auditory system could promote a challenging, resource-dependent learning environment that might increase the reliance on proprioceptive doi: 10.1111/nyas.13967 information.…”

Bodily Expression Support for Creative Dance Education by Grasping-Type Musical Interface with Embedded Motion and Grasp Sensors

“…The third perspective is rehabilitation for recovery of impaired sensory-motor function after neurological or traumatic damage. Scholz et al [33] presents possible effectiveness of musical feedback for upper limb rehabilitation after stroke and discusses the advantage of it as inducing motivation of the patients as well as enhancement of sensory-motor learning with the help of the feedback. Playfulness is an important factor of rehabilitation, inducing motivation and active participation of the patients, to which a new technology can contribute [34].…”