CuePD and a room full of guitars

CuePD is a research project exploring whether personalised music and sound cues delivered through a smartphone can improve walking (gait) in people with Parkinson’s disease.

The idea is based on something already used in Parkinson’s - rehabilitation: rhythmic auditory cueing. That's a fancy-sounding but realistic way that patients sometimes find walking becomes easier when their movement is synchronised to an external rhythm — for example, a metronome beat or music. The rhythm can help overcome problems such as short steps, hesitation, shuffling, and reduced walking speed - all things that can be an affliction associated with Parky's. 

There are various other aids to movement through music and regaining voice control, but CuePD aims to make the system more personal:

1. Your phone measures your walking using its built-in motion sensors.
2. It analyses your walking rhythm (such as step timing and cadence).
3. It provides music matched to your own walking pattern, rather than a generic beat.
4. The intention is to help “train” a steadier walking pattern over time. 

Early research has been promising and in one study, people with Parkinson’s walked using the personalised cues plus the sounds and music as described above. The researchers found improvements in some gait measures, including stride length and walking speed, although it's acknowledged that larger real-world studies are still needed before the CuePD method becomes established.  

Given my own experience with walking becoming more of a shuffle at times, balance becoming less reliable, it's exciting to hear about the music aspect especially as it obviously cross-refers well with my Music For Parkinson's newsletter etc. It's not intended to be a replacement for medication or physiotherapy, but should fit very well into a growth area also known as music-based gait rehabilitation.

It's interesting for me as a musician and the same for many of you that read my newsletters, or just keep an eye on my blog, that the idea of emotionally connecting music (rather than a sterile metronome) may be especially appealing. Research is specifically looking at whether music improves engagement and willingness to keep practising, where apathy can also be a problem getting started with work or anything else. Moreover, I have hit upon some apathy recently. It isn’t that I’ve suddenly become lazy. It isn’t that I have become less inspired by the things that interest me and/or relevant to my life. But just getting started with a task, however simple, can feel like a mountain to climb. And in doing a little research into this, I find that it’s a common yet little recognised symptom of Parkinson’s and one possible solution can be reasonably applied like this:

breakdown task into tiny sections which may appear a little silly at first but nonetheless effective. Example: open laptop, access Microsoft Word, Write first sentence of blog. Breaking down the task like this, you can make it possible to get a dopamine hit even for the most modest achievement (opening laptop) and having kickstarted in that way you make the remainder of the task more likely to be completed. So next time you hit that brick wall in terms of getting started with something, maybe try this method and let me know how you get along with it?

Quick change of subjects for the finish today – I went this weekend on a trip to the Manchester Guitar Show, accompanied by son Luke and our friend Tony Malone. Nothing like a room full of guitars to inspire you and stretch every sinew of the wallet! Although I made no purchase personally, Luke picked up a very nice Fender Precision bass, no doubt inspired by his recent meeting and conversation with one Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. I resisted the temptation of several handsome looking semi-acoustic guitars. Maybe next time?

Will you join the list to receive my free newsletter?