LOS ANGELES: Listening to music and being bounced up and down has helped a young woman who was paralyzed regain consciousness and could be a new neurological treatment method.
At the Conscious Brain and Rhythms of Music conference, composer Ryo Noda spoke about the use of musico-kinetic therapy to treat persistent vegetative state patients.
A 27-year-old Japanese woman, who was paralyzed after surviving a car crash four years ago, was in a state of deep unconsciousness — a three on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) — and was was on nasogastric tube feeding.
Beginning in March 2013, the patient’s parents started taking her to an Osaka hospital for Noda’s musico-kinetic therapy twice a week for 30-minute sessions. Four to five therapists would work together, with some holding her and bouncing up and down on the bed, while others played music, Noda said.
He said that the music chosen included hit songs from the Japanese pop group SMAP, the theme song of the Japanese cartoon Doraemon, American pop music, classical music by Chopin and the occasional Japanese nursery rhyme.
The patient has regained partial oral communication ability, including singing, and is able to feed herself, as well as remember some telephone numbers, he said.