Our Research in the Music & Medicine Movement
Sounds Good Choir may only be eight years old, but the organization has gained recognition and exposure through a collaborative partnership with an accomplished medical-research team at Northwestern Medical Center. SGC is now being included in cutting-edge local and national conversations at the intersection of music and medicine. These conversations are shaping not only the scientific understanding of music as a non-medical intervention for wellbeing, but also the landscape for policy discussions regarding its efficacy. People who may have no interest in our work as singers or even audience members are taking note of our efforts to position choral singing as a health-enhancing activity.
The Wider Field of Music and Medicine
The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in interest in the role of music in enhancement of wellbeing, including its physical, cognitive, emotional, and social aspects. The medical field is exploring the mechanisms by which music affects the brain and other body systems and has begun to see a role for music in the treatment of disease. Within the study of dementia among neurologists, there has been particular interest in music as a non-medical intervention. Music has been shown to improve cognitive function and lessen long-term depression in people with dementia, along with improving quality of life (see this meta-analysis published in the National Library of Medicine).
Why Does Research Matter?
Popular and professional literature—as well as film, television, and news accounts—proliferate with stories of people with dementia who continue to be able to sing, long after they have lost most other functions. To date, however, the body of quantitative research on music as a non-medical intervention has been scant, even as the number of anecdotal accounts has mounted. It is essential that we move beyond anecdotes by reinforcing these stories with systematic, rigorous research. To be a credible voice in the scientific and medical communities, as well as the policy arena, we have to be able to frame our programs in language that these disciplines understand.
The Sounds Good Choir organization, with its Sounds Good Choir and Good Memories Choir programs and also its online sing-along offerings, is in the initial stages of work to position itself as an organization that plays a significant role in making the case for choral singing as a proven intervention—both in the treatment of dementia and in protecting against the progression of cognitive impairment.
Our research is on both (a) cognitively healthy older adults and (b) those in the early stage of dementia. While this research is only in its initial phases and based on retroactive self-reports, our early results include the documenting of positive outcomes in emotional, physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual wellbeing.
In September 2023, Sounds Good Choir launched a research study on the impact of group singing on older adults. Partnering with researchers from Northwestern University’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease and the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, the study consisted of three surveys taken before, during, and after participants started singing in a Sounds Good choir. The participant questionnaires were designed to measure aspects of health such as purpose in life and mood. Where applicable, participants who are caregivers for a person with dementia completed an additional questionnaire. Data analysis will be completed in the spring of 2024.
Access to National Conversations
The SGC staff is participating in roundtable discussions with the Sound Health Network, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Institutes of Health. Leaders from Sound Health, including geneticist Dr. Francis Collins and opera superstar Renee Fleming, held a national summit in December 2023. Their recent PBS NewsHour interview outlines the current state of the conversation connecting music and medicine, including the growing national interest in social prescriptions for musical interventions. SGC’s research efforts are keeping us visible, informed, and valuable in this vital public conversation.
And Why Does Our Research, on Our Choirs, Matter?
We are fortunate in being able to make use of research not only on other choral programs, but also the specific interventions that the Sounds Good Choir organization offers. In other words, it’s much better for us to study our own choirs than someone else’s. For example, in the mid-2010s a few research efforts were begun in New York and British Columbia about the impact of choirs on dementia, but the programs studied were quite different from our own.
There is great power in studying our own choirs because any useful results will mean that we can keep doing our programs without having to do major backflips to alter our programs to achieve a particular desired outcome. However, as a responsible research team, we will continue to carefully watch the results of others’ research efforts to keep abreast of major developments that might inform our own programming.
Read more about our research in this white paper (in formata): Making the Case for Choral Singing as a Proven Intervention in the Treatment of Dementia and in Protecting Against the Progression of Cognitive Impairment
Our Study: The Impact of Group Singing on Older Adults
Although there is a great deal of anecdotal information about the benefits of choral singing, only a few research studies exist in the scientific literature that document those benefits. Through our study, Sounds Good Choirs wants to contribute to research in the growing field of medicine and music.
We are excited about this latest development for Sounds Good Choirs. Contributing to the understanding of music’s benefits for older adults has been part of the organization’s mission since we began in 2016, and we are so grateful to our donors and our board of directors whose generosity and support has allowed us to take this first, important step. Our hope is that it will be the first in a series of research projects of publication quality.
Our Research Partners
Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine
Principal Investigator
Leading the study is Borna Bonakdarpour, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology in the Division of Behavioral Neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Music and Medicine Program there. He is also a physician on the medical staff of the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, and the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. His research and clinical interests include therapeutic interventions for aphasia and dementias and cognitive neurology (disorders of memory, attention, language, visual processing).
Research Team
The research team, what Dr. Bonakdarpour refers to as “the Dream Team,” was four years in the making. Sounds Good Choirs founders Jonathan Miller, PhD, and Sandy Siegel Miller, PhD, are working with Dr. Bornakdarpour and researchers from two of Chicago’s premier medical centers: Rhiana Schafer, BA, from Northwestern’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, and Glenn Stebbins, PhD, and Patricia Boyle, PhD, from The Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
Learn more
Sounds Good Choir’s Recommends…
Take a deeper dive into the connections between music and well-being with these helpful resources.
Renée Fleming
Beloved soprano and arts & health advocate’s book, Music and Mind:
https://reneefleming.com/advocacy/music-and-the-mind/
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Music-Mind-Harnessing-Health-Wellness/dp/059365319X
The Sound Health Network (SHN) is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts with the University of California, San Francisco in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Renée Fleming, the center’s artistic advisor.
Sounds Health Network engages with scientists, music therapists, clinicians, patients, music and arts organizations, funders, and the general public to promote the quality, quantity, and relevance of research at the intersections of music, neuroscience, health, and wellness across the lifespan, advancing the potential of music to improve all our lives.
YouTube: “What goes on inside the brain of a world-class singer?”
https://soundhealth.ucsf.edu/music-and-mind
Explore the 19-episode series featuring Renée Fleming, renowned soprano and arts & health advocate in conversation with scientists and practitioners working at the intersection of music, neuroscience, and healthcare.
Blog Post
Video
Music Intervention for Alzheimer’s, Dementia and other Neurological Conditions with Northwestern University neurologist, Borna Bornakdarpour