AMSTERDAM (AP) 鈥� Megan Worthy still recalls singing in a choir in the Australian capital, Canberra, as she was growing up.
Now, as a rare form of early-onset dementia chips away at her vision and other brain functions, the 58-year-old is transported back to her musical youth as she and her daughter, Bronte, sing together with other people with in an Amsterdam concert hall, the Concertgebouw.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty brutal,鈥� Worthy said of her rare neurological condition. 鈥淚鈥檓 starting to lose everything, you know, and this is really rewarding and seeing all these people, yeah, it did make me have a lot of memories.鈥�
She was taking part in a so-called 鈥渟inging circle鈥� run by opera singer Maartje de Lint at the landmark concert venue for seniors with what she calls 鈥渧ulnerable brains,鈥� many of whom have a form of dementia or .
Millions of people have some form of dementia, a progressive loss of memory, reasoning, language skills and other cognitive functions. People can experience changes in personality, emotional control, even visual perception. is the most widely recognized type, but there are many others, with their own symptoms and underlying biology. Small strokes, for example, can impair blood flow to the brain and trigger what鈥檚 called vascular dementia.
The singers in Amsterdam, who each pay 20 euros ($23.50) to attend, are arranged with their carers in a circle of chairs under a ceiling hung with 14 crystal chandeliers in the venue’s ornate Mirror Hall.
鈥淲e always say, music is like vitamins,鈥� said Selien Kneppers, 78, who once managed a Dutch boogie woogie and blues band and now regularly attends the singing circle.
Roving around the middle, often dropping to one knee and reaching out her hands to connect with a singer, is De Lint. She and other singers in her organization crisscross the Netherlands and Europe, leading singing workshops.
Singing, De Lint says, is a way of keeping the brain active and bringing family members and their loved ones closer together.
鈥淪o we give people perspective,” she says before one of her singing sessions in Amsterdam. “It鈥檚 like actually a training for the brain, for the body, to get more resilient and understand the perspective that you still have.鈥�
The hour-long session clearly has an emotional effect on the singers and their carers. Helpers regularly hand out paper tissues for people to dab away tears. One man tenderly reached out a hand to touch the face of the woman next to him as they sang songs ranging from Elvis Presley’s 鈥淟ove Me Tender鈥� to Frank Sinatra’s 鈥淔ly Me to the Moon” and 鈥淎mazing Grace.鈥�
Neurobiologist Brankele Frank, who is not connected to De Lint’s project, agrees that singing can be beneficial to people with dementia or 础濒锄丑别颈尘别谤鈥檚 or other kinds of neurodegenerative diseases.
Music “speaks to brain areas that haven鈥檛 really been degenerated yet,” she told The Associated Press. “So, for example, their verbal skills often are compromised, but music speaks to parts of the brain that don鈥檛 necessarily need verbal skills. And so it taps into their emotion, their sense of self, their identity.鈥�
Scientists are studying the potential for people with dementia, traumatic brain injuries, Parkinson鈥檚 disease and stroke. Music lights up multiple regions of the brain, strengthening neural connections between areas that govern language, memories, emotions and movement.
Megan’s daughter, Bronte Henfling, said that even getting her mother to a new environment that was not a medical appointment to discuss her posterior cortical atrophy felt good.
鈥淛ust hearing everyone come together and sing … it reminds us that we鈥檙e all human and there鈥檚 a humanity out there which is really pleasing and nice to be a part of,鈥� she said.
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