Exploring Different Types of Music Cues for Arm Movements in Adults with Parkinson’s

Music therapists may use auditory cueing to facilitate movement exercises when working on motor goals with adults with Parkinson’s disease (PD). There is minimal research, however, comparing the effects of different auditory cueing techniques on the kinematic parameters of movements in adults with PD. The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare how rhythmic and sonified musical cues impact the smoothness and path variance of a repetitive, volitional arm movement in adults with PD. Seven adults with PD and 10 neurotypical adults completed 3 trials of a repetitive arm-reaching task in each of the 3 auditory cueing conditions. The position of each participant’s wrist was recorded in 3 dimensions using an infrared motion capture system. Data from the motion capture system were processed for normalized jerk (NJ) and spatiotemporal index (STI). No significant differences in STI or NJ were observed between groups in the no cueing condition. Repeated measures analyses revealed no significant differences in NJ or STI for the PD group across conditions. Participant-level analysis of the PD group revealed a trend of less efficient movement performance in the rhythmic cueing condition and improved movement performance in the sonified cueing condition. These findings warrant further research to inform music therapists’ use of auditory-motor cueing.