HJLR May/Jun 2019

46 MAY / JUN 2019  I  Healthcare Journal of little rock   Healthcare Briefs Parkinson’s patients have participated in “rhyth- mic entrainment,” which involves drumming and vocal music therapy programs. After six weeks, participants in the drumming study showed improvements in motor function and quality of life and reported a reduction in tremors that are prevalent in Parkinson’s patients. After 12 weeks, those in the vocal study displayed specific quality of life improvements such as com- munication and body discomfort, all attributable to singing. “Music and rhythm-based interventions have emerging evidence of benefit in Parkinson’s dis- ease and other diseases,” Pantelyat said. As an audiologist, Kraus’s research largely entails how the brain receives and processes the sounds it hears. She’s worked extensively with children and spoke of how their exposure to music – or lack thereof – impacted neurologi- cal development. Most recently, Kraus has led a study at North- western involving concussion in college athletes. At the beginning of the project, she separates student athletes who have had a documented concussion from those who haven’t. She then plays music for the students and studies how the brain response is different in those who have suf- fered a concussion versus those who haven’t. “Because making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs we ask our brains to do, it is a mea- sure of brain health,” Kraus said. “That’s why when you get hit in the head and sustain a con- cussion, you can see that sound processing bio- logically becomes disrupted and can be used as an index of when an athlete might be ready to return to play, return to learn, and it can give you feedback for treatment options and help in the diagnostic process in the first place.” Among those in attendance were Jonesboro residents Clem and Vivian Wixted. Two years ago, Vivian was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and has since participated in music therapy programs. “We’ve seen some of the practical benefits of the therapy, but tonight we got to hear about the science behind what we’ve experienced,” Clem Wixted said. “It was really encouraging to know that there’s evidence that shows why the therapy works, and it lifts our spirits to know there’s some incredible research being done to help people like us who are fighting.” n KrausPantelyatXiao – Dr. Nina Kraus, Dr. Alex Pantelyat and NYITCOM medical student Yitong Xiao perform a demonstration to show how the brain processes music during NYITCOM’s second-annual Distinguished Medical Lecture series, which was held on March 26 in Jonesboro. The program was titled “Rhythmic Healing: Music & Medicine” and explored medical benefits that music provides.