Music Plays a Leading Role in New Health Products for Alzheimer's and Dementia

Musical Health Technologies is one of several companies developing products based on a growing body of research indicating that music can have a significant effect for treating Alzheimer's and dementia, reports Billboard . "To be able to express a song, you're literally capitalizing on the whole brain," says company co-founder and licensed music therapist Andy Tubman. "Language centers, timing centers, motor centers, planning centers — you get this whole brain exercise." Musical Health Technologies' SingFit Prime program uses music as an interactive tool, but even passive music listening can positively stimulate the brain. A 2018 study at University of Utah Health used real-time magnetic resonance imaging scans of brain activity to show that familiar music lit up regions of the brain that stay active in persons with advanced Alzheimer's, even as activity in speech and memory pathways deteriorates. Music therapist Kate Richards Geller notes SingFit repertoires are selected based on seniors' "sticky years" between 13 and 23, which she describes as "the years they were listening to that music and all those songs went in and stayed. That's what we're providing them is this opportunity to re-enter that world."