title: Conceptualizing how group singing may enhance quality of life with Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Abstract Purpose: Group singing could be a promising component of neurorehabilitative care. This article aims to conceptualize how group singing may enable people with Parkinson's disease (PD) to synchronize their movement patterns to musical rhythm and enhance quality of life.
  
  
  METHODS
  Spanning the medical and social sciences, the article draws conceptually on literature on PD, group singing and rhythm in music; personal experience; and reasoning.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Conceptualizing PD in terms of disruptions to social and biological rhythms, we hypothesize how group singing may produce two socio-psychological states - connectedness and flow - that may entrain rhythm in people with PD. The states connect during group singing to elicit and enhance motor processes but may also reawaken after the group singing, through the recall and reactivation of the musical rhythms encoded during group singing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In people with PD, this continuity of flow is hypothesized to be conducive to rhythmic entrainment during and after group singing and in turn to reduced deficits in motor timing and emotional processing, and improvements in quality of life. Empirical studies are needed to test this hypothesis in people with movement disorders such as PD. Implications for Rehabilitation Musical rhythm in group singing may enhance quality of life, and rehabilitation, in people with PD. Use group singing to produce two socio-psychological states - connectedness and flow - that may yield these health benefits. Include people with PD in singing groups to facilitate perceptual exposure to familiar music with melodic distinctiveness and a regular beat.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care .
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Buetow
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Talmage
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McCann
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fogg
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Purdy
mesh_terms: D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009146:Music; D009147:Music Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D011584:Psychology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011788:Quality of Life; D063346:Singing