A new study has shown that dancing with music can halt the most debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The study, published in the journal ‘Brain Sciences’, found that patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson’s disease (PD) can slow the progress of the disease by participating in dance training with music for one-and-a-quarter hours per week. Over the course of three years, this activity was found to reduce daily motor issues such as those related to balance and speech, which often lead to social isolation. People with PD who participated in weekly dance training, had less motor impairment and showed significant improvement in areas related to speech, tremors, balance and rigidity compared to those who did not do any dance exercise. Their data showed significant improvements in experiences of daily living, which include cognitive impairment, hallucinations, depression, and anxious moods such as sadness. In the study, researchers looked at how a multi-sensory activity, (like dance with music learning), which incorporated the use and stimulation of several sensory modalities in the dance environment including vision, audition, tactile perception, proprioception, kinesthesia, social organization and expression, olfactory, vestibular and balance control — may influence many of the mood, cognitive, motor and neural challenges faced by PwPD. Researchers followed collected data from PwPD over three-and-a-half years while they learned choreography over the first year and performed it, which is designed to be adaptable to the disease stage and current symptoms for PwPD. Classes began with live music accompaniment during the seated warm-up, followed by barre work, and ended with moving across the floor. All participants learned choreography for an upcoming performance. Researchers recorded videos, conducted paper and pen questionnaires of all participants and performed statistical analyses. Researchers will next examine what occurs in the brain immediately before and after a dance class to determine what neurological changes take place.
