Latest news and publications

On 16th April I will be presenting to members of the Stroke Association 'An Introduction to Playing and Listening to Music to Help Speech, Attention and Movement in Stroke Rehabilitation.' This has been organised by Naresh Jhali who is the engagement officer for East of England. I hope the information is useful to those attending, aiming to help them access music in ways useful to them.

CALLING stroke survivors who are musicians. Please contact me either via this website or via alex.street@aru.ac.uk. If you or a family member have played an instrument or sung as a hobby or at any level and your stroke has affected this, I would like to hear from you. What has the journey been like? How has rehabilitation helped/not helped? What more could be done?

The latest medical and therapeutic developments to manage stroke symptoms and recovery were discussed at Hinchingbrooke, including challenges of conducting stroke research, when and what to prescribe to prevent second strokes, aphasia assessment tools for 'internal speech dialogue' as part of recovery and music-based interventions using tablet-based touchscreen instruments for arm hemiparesis - thanks to North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (Carla Thompson) for organising this and all of the other 'Meet the Researchers' events across the country - click here for 'Future research events.' Blow is a picture of Dr Nicolas Evans from Addenbrooke's trying some touchscreen exercises.

LATEST ARTICLE:

Music listening for psychological well-being in adults with acquired vision impairment: a feasibility randomised controlled trial

It would be great to conduct an efficacy study now, with a reliable method of recording music listening fidelity. The study shows enough feasibility to ensure recruitment, retention and data collection, and data indicate potential benefits for managing anxiety and depression with this home-based music intervention. Read it here

Our article 'The Art and Craft of Music Therapy for Stroke Rehabilitation in a Remote North Indian Community: A Case Study' has gained some interest https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/3724. In the article the music therapists discovered the music that was important to the client and this helped them engage and benefit. There is a need for more research into all aspects of neurorehabilitation that provides access where needed to clients' culture specific music preferences, whether for listening to improve mood and cognitive recovery, or to provide temporal frameworks to facilitate sensorimotor exercises and cognitive training. The Garageband app is not a rehabilitation app but touchscreen instruments can be adapted for arm and hand exercises, and there are several instruments from China, Japan, Java and West Africa. I would be very interested in supporting researchers from anywhere in the world in discovering how music from their cultures can be accessed and developed to help increase access to music therapy.

The ocarina is a popular instrument in Brazil and simple to play. A team of researchers have built an electronic version that will have the capability to electronically measure the user's breath velocity, pressure and duration. Intended users are people with Chronic, Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), but it could also help people with stroke and other neurorehabilitation populations recover breath control and speech. Mouth pieces are removable, enabling effective infection control. Let's see how they continue to develop the instrument:

Dedicated low-cost electronic ocarina for people with COPD: Rationale and prototype development

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08098131.2024.2410043?needAccess=true

 At the Society for Research in Rehabilitation hosted at the University of Essex on 15th January we presented a poster of our upper limb rehabilitation EEG study, sharing progress. Stroke survivors have received 15 sessions in their home in three-weeks, a treatment dosage for these home-based exercises that has not been delivered previously anywhere in the world.

Below is a video that shows the stages through which it is possible to configure Touchscreen guitar chords for alternating thumb stumming up or down the screen, or holding a stylus to practice pinch grip. The sound quality is excellent when connected to an external speaker, such as the JBL Charge 4 or 5.

We published results from the first biomedical music therapy feasibility study in the UK in 2017, which also included these iPad exercises.

Home-based neurologic music therapy for arm hemiparesis following stroke: results from a pilot, feasibility randomized controlled trial

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269215517717060

Protocol details are here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26441586/

CONFERENCES

At The Neurosciences and Music | VIII13-16 JUNE 2024, Helsinki, Finland & Online we discussed the role of machine learning to aid in delivery of music-based interventions in the community for arm rehabilitation post-stroke. This would be to address the challenges of intervention delivery - insufficient clinicians and time in community rehab - so that larger, multi-site trials can be facilitated, working towards development and implementation of app-based exercises.

The literature from previous research suggests that a reduction from fatigue might result from 1-hour listening to preferred music daily for 6-8-weeks, and that the autonomic nervous system responds to musical emotional arousal, i.e. the right music (tempo, arrangement, etc) can relax, enliven, and everything in between.

Discussions with leading figures in neurorehab on the active ingredients of interventions, including music-based ones, at The Sociey for Research in Rehabilitation took place on 29 April 2024

PUBLICATIONS AND BROADCASTS

August 2024: Preferred music listening for people living with dementia: Two home-based case studies discussing compilation process, autobiographical and biophysical responses. In the journal 'Geriatric Nursing.'

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2024.07.022

BBC World Service: People Fixing the World featuring two participants & Dr Alex Street from the RadioMe for dementia study:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hm9q83 (listen from about 8-minutes)

What might an interactive music therapy service bring to the adult intensive care unit? A suggested service based on data from a scoping review

https://doi.org/10.1177/13594575241235126