Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Pittsburgh

Jennie Dorris, MM; Juleen Rodakowski, OTD, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA

Developing and Assessing a Spatial-Skills-Focused Marimba Program for Older Adults with Cognitive Challenges

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE

AIMS

METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• Older adults with declining cognition have declining spatial skills, leading to difficulty staying oriented in their environments. 1, 2, 3

• Music has shown the potential to enhance spatial skills.4

• Reading written music and staying oriented on the instrument is associated with a change in spatial skills.5

A six-week marimba program was developed and assessed* with two musical goals to target spatial skills:

• Reading written music without note names.

• Orientation to strike the correct bar on the instrument. Music excerpts became longer and changed direction faster over the six weeks.

*Two research assistants observed and recorded when participants chose to read music without note names and counted accurate pitches for orientation success rates.

Participants’ Success Rate Staying Oriented on

Instrument

Participants experienced modest clinically meaningful changes in their spatial orientation after six weeks of marimba classes that focused on developing orientation spatial skills.

Older adults with changing cognition responded successfully to the spatial music activities of reading music and staying oriented on the instrument during increasingly challenging music over six weeks.

1. Lister JP, Barnes CA. Neurobiological changes in the hippocampus during normative aging. Arch Neurol. 2009;66(7):829-33. Epub 2009/07/15. doi: 10.1001/archneurol.2009.125. PubMed PMID: 19597084.2. Merhav M, Wolbers, T. Aging and spatial cues influence the updating of navigational memories. [published online August 7, 2019]. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47971-23. Mu Y, Gage FH. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis and its role in Alzheimer's disease. Mol Neurodegener. 2011;6:85. Epub2011/12/24. doi: 10.1186/1750-1326-6-85. PubMed PMID: 22192775; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC3261815. 4. Hetland L. (2000). Learning to make music enhances spatial reasoning. Journal of Aesthetic Education. 34(3/4): 179–238.5. Stewart L, Walsh V, Frith U. Reading music modifies spatial mapping in pianists. Percept Psychophys. 2004; 66(2): 183-95. Epub 2004/05/08. PubMed PMID: 15129741.

Thank you to our participants. Funding provided by the Academy of Country Music's Lifting Lives grant and the National Institute on Aging, R01AG056351. We thank: Dr. Jim Becker, Dr. Elizabeth Skidmore, Bonnie Hoolahan, Robin Sullivan and Holly Giovengo from the BriTE program for partnering with us for this research study. Research assistants Diana McLaughlin and Dustin Grimes for gathering data during the study. Kevin Lin for volunteering with the BriTEprogram during the study. From CMU, Dan Martin and Denis Colwell for supporting the Marimba Cognition Lab. Dr. Sally Newman for her expertise and consultation.

The marimba used by participants.

Selecting to Read Music

Notation Without

Note Names

Success Rate Staying Oriented on Instrument

STUDY TYPE: Single-group repeated measures study.

PARTICIPANTS: Older adults with decline in cognition. N=15, ages 65-89. Average Modified Mini Mental State Examination score of 81.3 (SD = 11.0).

RESEARCH QUESTION

Orientation Test from the Test of

Visual Perceptual

Skills (TVPS)

Can a spatially focused music program support the orientation of older adults

with declining cognition? 83%

77%83%

92% 87%91%

Wk 1n=12

Wk 2n=13

Wk 3n=11

Wk 4n=14

Wk 5n=12

Wk 6n=9

Mea

n pe

rcen

tage

of n

otes

acc

urat

ely

play

ed

Participants Who Selected to Read Music Notation Without

Note Names

Orientation Test from the TVPS

# of participants week one reading music without note names

Num

ber o

f par

ticip

ants

# of participants week six reading music without notes names

11

1

Pre-test mean, SD (n=14)

Post-test mean, SD (n=14)

Cohen’s d effect size estimate

Marimba participants

13.4 (1.9) 14.1 (2.7) 0.3

CONCLUSION

It’s critical to determine programs that can support older adults facing deficits in their orientation. Specific musical training with marimbas appears to be associated with changes in spatial skills.

Limitations: The study was limited by a small participant pool and there was a ceiling effect from the Orientation Test from the TVPS.

FUTURE DIRECTIONSDifferent types of music training may support spatial skills, and it is important to examine the effects of spatial-skills focused music training on novices compared to those with prior musical experience.

OUTCOMES

INTERVENTION

TASK OBJECTIVE

Learning to read music without note names

Ability to spatially read map of pitches

Learning orientation on instrument during increasingly challenging music

Staying oriented while changing direction and location quickly and accurately

Participation in six weeks of spatial-skills music classes

Change in scores on a spatial orientation assessment