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What is it that brings this old man back to life?
Watch the six minute video and then explain to your fellow TEDsters why the cognitive spark suddenly and immediately roused this elegant old gentleman from his long-standing state of persistent unresponsiveness to a gleeful, exuberant appreciation of life:
http://youtu.be/NKDXuCE7LeQ
Glenn Barres
While under that spell, it would be cool to be able to see the images of his mind both of the imagination and fMRI sort.
Allan Macdougall 30+
Music is more powerful than we can imagine. It is certainly capable of transporting me to places where I want to be - either imagined, or back to enjoyable periods experienced in the past.
Cab Calloway's music is clearly a powerful marker of a wonderful period in Henry's life.
Thanks for sharing Edward.
Terry Harman
The stimulus and attachment to a previously more independent way of living was what bought him back to life. That and the fact that music and the arts opperates on a less than rational and more personal level. All the rational and well meaning care in the world wouldn't do anything for him, what he was desperatley craving was personal attachment and a true communication.
What he needed was for people to LISTEN to him and care FOR him rather than ABOUT him. Not because it's charitable to take care of the elderly but because every single human is living in the same world as one another and to be valued for their own sake and not as some abstract problem like 'how does society take care of an ageing population?'
Mitch SMith 50+
I see this kind of thing all the time.
In fact, for the last 8 or 9 years, my life has been dedicated to bringing the full power of music into the lives of ordinary people. Particularly those who have spent all their lives in mind-numbing servitude to money and carreer, and then find themselves retired and feeling like their lives were wasted.
My focus is on the humble pennywhislte, it has a special allure to those with Celtic roots. Because it is so simple, it is not a daunting challenge to pick up and play some haunting old melody or any jolly old tune you knew when you were young.
I call it "the tin leprechaun". And to follow it, is to be lead on a journey beyond anything you ever expected. It is the long jouney home.
In that way I regard it as a little dorway to heaven.
Certainly, for me, it has lead me home, it has lead me to a community that few know even exists.
I now know with absolute certainty that heaven is not in the sky - it was right here all along.
I am sure that music is not the only path, but it is a very important one.
Don Wesley 50+
To see his response is enough for me.
Explanations are just noise.
pat gilbert 50+
edward long 100+
pat gilbert 50+
Have you seen people who become upset and quit talking and heard them say they quit talking for a long time and can't even remember what they were upset about?
Communication is the very substance of life, when it is lost why would it be surprising to have such a big effect?
edward long 100+
pat gilbert 50+
Anne Dagen 10+
edward long 100+
Anne Dagen 10+
I have visited a few facilities which care for the elderly, and been oppressed by the lack of energy, even if care isn't lacking. A few months ago in another conversation on here someone used the expression 'transients in the system'. The subject of that conversation was health care, but there are parallels. Even in the best of establishments, the routine requirements tend to overshadow the individuality of the inmate, and the effect is to depersonalise them. Restoring that personal identity is key to both physical and mental wellbeing.
Mind you, a lively patient can demand more of the system than a passive one, so there is a certain disincentive for the care organisation.
Mary M. 100+
I have elderly parents, and one of my biggest concerns is that I can't see myself putting them in a home, any home.
I think the big facilities have the elderly separated by condition...the ones that can walk and talk are in one wing, and the less mobile in another.
Around here we have Adult Living Facilities, where someone will purchase a house and convert it into a home for the elderly. Usually a house will have between 4-8 elderly women, or men, or couples.
Either way, the environment leaves much to be desired. Lots of elderly sitting around doing nothing but staring out into space, or into a tv set.
I agree with you that even in the best of establishments, the effect is to depersonalize the patients. And in order to have physical and mental well-being a restoration of their personal identity is vital.
Great comment......made me think alot......
edward long 100+
Robert Winner 50+
edward long 100+
Ken brown 30+
It's his core memories as a young person,i bet he loved music from when he was very young.
edward long 100+
Mitch SMith 50+
I suspect that it has special significance to the cerebellum - certainly, to play a musical instrument or sing deeply involves that part of teh brain.
WHat happens is that the core self becomes defined by music - whether you play or whether you just listen. It becomes a large part of your self-definition.
When one listens to the musics of teh different eras of your life - it directly invokes the self that you were at the time - this sparks-up the memories that were layed down at that time and recovers the gestault of that self at that time - the whole box and dice. It transports you to an entire world.
Derek Young 30+
I will forever have a new perspective on music from now on. =)
edward long 100+
PS. I'm sure you meant to say "never ceases to amaze me".
Mary M. 100+
I wanted to write to him last night and say the same thing.....but then I thought, nah, you are always correcting people's grammar and vocabulary mistakes Mary, cut it out.
But here you are doing it for me.
Thanks Edward.
Derek Young 30+
I was sitting next to this automatic door that kept on opening and closing during the night and no one was there, kind of scared me, but I managed to respond almost completely coherently. HAHA!
Mary M. 100+
It is just fantastic that music elicited such a response.
The fact that he was a music lover when he was younger might have something to do with it, don't you think?
Let's hope that nursing homes all over the world realize the power of music, and are able to help the elderly with it.
I am sure that other elderly patients might react just as enthusiastically to other stimuli....such as food. I knew a man in his 90's who just loved olives. Whenever they wanted his cooperation, his nurse would promise him olives, and he would comply with her requests.
Thank you for sharing. I look forward to reading any insights from other TEDsters with some expertise in this field of neuroscience.
edward long 100+
Mary M. 100+
I only used neuroscience because of the doctor speaking throughout the video.....it said he was a neuroscientist. I wonder if the gentleman in the home is being studied?
But Edward, do you think it is really the Ipod?.......I took it more to be the music itself, and the ipod just the tool used in order for the other patients not to be disturbed with the sounds.
I'll have you know that if my daughter watches the video, she will surely say...."MOM I HOPE I DON"T HAVE TO BE IN AN OLD FOLKS HOME TO GE AN IPOD"
I am keeping this TED conversation under wraps.
Of course, the magic and the miracle and the mystery is MUSIC.....not neuroscience.........you know I read in a journal last year about an elderly lady in the Phillippines who was at the stage where she didn't talk any more (alhzheimers). A missionary visited her and decided to take along some christian music that was sung at the house of worship. Next thing you know, the elderly woman began singing with the music at the top of her lungs.....So I am very aware that music is something incredible.......it makes the heart rejoice.
I made a CD of songs for my dad a few months back and bought him a CD player, so when he feels lonely, he listens to the wonderful songs and can lift his spirits. Many times when I show up at his house unexpectedly, I catch him listening to the music. It has helped him alot.
Thanks again for the great video......I hope they show it on TV in some documentary like 60 minutes or 20/20, so that the elderly who do not enjoy technology and/or music can think about getting themselves an ipod.......or the like.
Have a super Thursday Edward!!!!