A study recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research involving York University researchers shows that dancing lowers depression that is associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and the benefits can be seen in multiple ways. This is believed to be the first study to show improvements in both self-reported questionnaires as well as MRI brain scans.
“It was very cool to see that dance had a positive effect on the mood circuits in the brain, which we could see in the imaging,” says Faculty of Health associate professor Joseph DeSouza, an author of the study. “These improvements that we could see on MRI brain scans were also reported by the participants via survey. Our study is the first to demonstrate these benefits across these two detection methods.”
The Study
This study involved 23 participants with Parkinson’s disease as well as 11 healthy controls (mostly family and caretakers of others with PD) who were enrolled in Canada’s National Ballet School. The participants engaged in weekly dance classes for 8 months, beginning with simple leg and footwork, progressing to plies, interpretive movements, waltzes, and more complicated and choreographed dance movements.
The researchers tried to focus on a node in the brain called the subcallosal cingulate gyrus (SCG) which has previously been shown to be implicated in depressive behavior patterns. Participant mood and depression levels were measured and scored using the Geriatric Depression Scale both before and after every dance class, as well as at undergoing regular MRI scans at York University.
Findings
The researchers reported finding that after each dance class, the rates of depression dropped. Moreover, the effects were cumulative from class to class, with significant improvements being observed after 8 months. Additionally, the MRI scans revealed reduced signals in a frontal-cortex brain region associated with emotional regulation. In a smaller subset of the participants, the MRI scans also revealed a significant decrease in depression scores were correlated with changes in the SCG node.
Dancing The Blues Away
“We essentially showed that SCG BOLD [blood oxygen level-dependent] signal decreases while dancing over time. Which means that the SCG was not functioning as fast as it would if you had depression,” says former York PhD student Karolina Bearss, now a professor at Algoma University.
“People with Parkinson’s disease tend to have multiple symptoms that are not just motor related, there are a lot of symptoms that include mental and social well-being impairments, one of those being depression,” explains Bearss.
Improving The Lives Of Those With Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can have a prodromal phase lasting anywhere from 2 to 10 years that is characterized by low moods even before other symptoms such as tremors and other motor control symptoms appear. This research building off of the researcher’s previous 3-year study shows that dance training helps those with Parkinson’s disease with moods, motor function, and day-to-day living.
DeSuza, who has been dancing with the participants in the program for 14 years says that while dancing is not a treatment, the benefits are clear. Dancing is thought to have double benefits for those with Parkinson’s disease, while the music activates the brain’s reward centers the movement activates the sensory and motor circuits.
“We’re not trying to cure Parkinson’s with dance,” says DeSouza, also with the Centre for Vision Research and Connected Minds at York. “What we’re trying to do is to have people live a better quality of life. This goes for both those with the disease, and their families that take care of them — they also get benefits of feeling better.”
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