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* The Effect of Listening To Rhythmic Music On Brain Training Game Scores In Patients With Alzheimer’s Dementia. Alzhemier’s & Dementia.  Volume 13, Issue 7, Suppl, pp 1413-1414, July 2017.

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Ceylin G. Sener, Tuna Yelken, Hulya Ozen, Demet Ozbabalik

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1 The Hill High School, Pottstown, PA, USA; 2 TED High School, Eskisehir, Turkey; 3 Osmangazi University Biostatistics Department, Eskisehir, Turkey; 4 Acibadem University Hospital Neurology Department, Eskisehir, Turkey

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Background: The aim of this study is to look for temporal changes on performance assessment scores of a “brain training game”, and the effect of listening to rhythmic music on the game performance scores in Alzheimer’s Dementia patients. 

Methods:Fourteen Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD) patients who were living in Alzheimer Nursing Home were included in the study. Alzheimer’s Dementia Level (ADL) was measured for each patient in the beginning. Each patient took a brain training focus/matching pairs game test for 18 days. Seven of the 14 patients (Group I) listened to rhythmic music, while control group (Group II) did not listen to music during the tests. Total game score (TGS), mean reaction time (MRT), and correct answer percentages (CAP) were calculated for each patient at the end of each game. ADLs of the patients were measured at the end of the study. 

Results: There was no difference between beginning and final ADLs in music-listening group (Group I) (p>0.05). The final ADL of non-music group improved mildly (p=. 0.032*). When two groups were evaluated together the ADL improved overall (p=0.024*). TGS was significantly different in Group I compared to Group II (p=0.003**). In Group I, TGS was significantly different between day 1and day 9 (p=0.008**), day 1 and day 18 (p=0.001**), and day 9 and day 18 (p=0.004**). However, the score difference between the days was not statistically significant in Group II (p>0.05). MRT was significantly different in Group I when compared to group II on 18th day (p=0.044*). MRT decreased over time in Group I, and the difference was significant between day 1 and day 18 (p=0.026*). No significant change was observed in Group II (p>0.05). CAP was different between Groups I and II, on day 1(p=0.032*), on day 9 (p=0.020*), and on day 18 (p=0.007**). No significant change was observed in the groups during test period (p>0.05). 

Conclusions: Playing brain training games for 18 days is associated with improvement on Alzheimer’s dementia scores. Listening to rhythmic music is associated with an increase in brain training games performance scores.

the normal healthy persons over 65 years old (Normal Adult group-NAg). Data analysis were performed with IBM SPSS 21. Shapiro Wilk test, t test, Mann-Whitney U test, two Way ANOVA (with one factor repetition). Relationships between qualitative variables were determined with chi-square test. A probability value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Concentration times were significantly different between the ADg and NAg for all film clips (p<0.001 for Clip1, p<0.01 for Clip2, p<0.01 for Clip3, p<0.01 for Clip4). Concentration times of the ADg patients were found significantly diminished. All NAg controls succeeded to concentrate during the whole length of film clips. No significant difference in face emotion pattern was found between the ADg and NAg before, during and after watching Clips1, Clip3 and Clip4 (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in verbally expressed emotional state between the ADg and NAg after watching Clip1, Clip3 and Clip4 (p>0.05). There was a significant difference in face emotion pattern was found between ADg and NAg during and after watching Clip2 (p=0.001 and p<0.001, respectively). There was a significant difference in verbally expressed emotional state between the ADg and NAg after watching Clip2 (p<0.001). Conclusions: ADg patients had shorter concentration periods than peers. Facially and verbally expressed reactions were similar in ADg and NAg in 3 genres (sad, disgust/anger, happy) of movie sequences. ADg mostly expressed “neutral/calm” emotions during and after the film Clip2 which is of “fear/surprise” genre, while all NAg uniformly felt “tense/excited”. We found that the film clip containing “fear/surprise” sequences do not provoke the expected normal emotional reactions encountered in normal population at the same age group. We propose to reseach the possible reasons for “fear/surprise” indifference on part of AD patients.