A Study of the Efficacy of IAMT as an Assessment Tool for Prediction of Progression of Parkinson's Disease

All participants will be scheduled to come to the testing rooms at the Manfred and Penny Conrad Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR) Improvisation Laboratory for participation. After the study is explained, questions are answered, and informed consent is obtained, the individual will complete the experiment.

At the beginning of the study, participants will receive a standardized functional and cognitive evaluation, as well as gait, fine motor, and gross motor assessments at the CIMTR lab. Additionally, a detailed demographic history will be taken, and prescription and over-the-counter medications will be recorded. Functional status will be measured using the Short Physical Performance Battery and the Timed Up & Go Test (TUG) for basic and instrumental activities of daily living. Global cognition will be assessed using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Trail-Making Test (TMT) A & B, the WAIS-R Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), the Digit Span Test, and the Letter Number Sequencing test. Fine and gross motor skills will be assessed using the Action Research Arm Test, the Hydraulic Hand Dynamometer Test, the Box and Block Test (BBT), and the 9-Hole Pegboard Test (9HPT).

Following the standardized functional and cognitive evaluation, gait, and fine and gross motor assessments, participants will undergo one individual IAMT assessment session consisting of 30 minutes of uninterrupted improvised music at the CIMTR. Participants will play music on a simplified electronic drum set (Roland TD-11K V-Compact Kit) with two drum pedals, two drum pads, and two cymbals. The supervised student or accredited music therapist will facilitate the session with an electric piano (Korg 88-Key) or guitar with MIDI outputs. MIDI files will be recorded with LogicPro (music software) and processed using MATLAB. The quantitative music outcomes provided by IAMT will allow us to objectively correlate them with functional and cognitive parameters.

During the music improvisation process, the supervised student or accredited music therapist will carefully listen to the participant's initial musical expression, including tempo, rhythmic structure, dynamics, and beat. The supervised student or accredited music therapist will then join, reflecting or confirming aspects of the participant's musical expression using standard music therapy improvisation techniques such as mirroring, matching, dialoguing, and containing on their electronic instrument. Mirroring involves playing exactly what the participant is playing. Matching is playing music that fits the participant's style. Dialogue is the process of free communication through musical play, allowing the therapist to introduce new musical material. Containing involves creating stable music that supports the participant's music. The supervised music therapy student or accredited music therapist will also incorporate call and response techniques and familiar music within the improvised music. At this stage, the primary goal will be to meet or blend with the participant's music. The supervised student or accredited music therapist will maintain these clinical improvisation techniques throughout the sessions. By comparing the participant's and therapist's musical responses over the sessions, it will be possible to identify note frequency, velocity of movement, synchronization, and acquisition of rhythmic complexity.

Following the music therapy session, the supervised student or accredited music therapist will conduct a post-session debrief of approximately 15 minutes. This will involve open-ended and closed-ended questions related to how participants felt during the music therapy session, their thoughts during the session, and their thoughts about the music played by the supervised music therapy student or accredited music therapist, as well as their own music playing.