Playing an instrument while having Alzheimer’s and thus your brain is severely affected. Professor Erik Scherder knows better than anyone else that your brain, despite being damaged, is capable of a lot. The brain professor explains it in this video: “This is an unconscious form of learning or remembering that is important for our motor skills, for example. This implicit learning is put away in places in our brain where it is less vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease, for example.”
The beauty now is that everything related to music is also stored in these protected parts of our brain. Erik Scherder, member of Embrace’s Committee of Recommendation: “Music of the past brings memories to life. And what is extra special: those who used to play a musical instrument can often still do so into old age. Even when memory is affected by dementia.”
Erik Scherder welcomes a very special guest in this video. A gentleman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who plays harmonica beautifully, with great pleasure.