Repetitive Beats

Over the past few years my taste in music has changed quite a bit. My preference has tended to be for guitar based music but lately I have preferred to listen to electronic, often quite repetitive music. I have occasionally wondered if there was some sort of link between the way that Parkinsons affects the brain and this change of perspective. Of course, people change their mind all the time about music but this switch coincided quite closely with the first of my symptoms to manifest themselves and has been quite radical. Those early symptoms left me with reduced motor skills on my right side. It is interesting (though probably coincidental) that the word motorik which is often used to describe a 4/4 beat used in electronica actually translates to 'motor skill'. I joined the Reddit Parkinsons group recently and they have been very helpful and informative with their replies to my questions so I thought I would chance my arm and ask if anyone had a similar experience.

The Redditors didn't let me down. User omgwtfbyobbq brought the term 'punding' to my attention. From the Wikipedia page for punding:

Punding is a term that was coined originally to describe complex prolonged, purposeless, and stereotyped behaviour in phenmetrazine and chronic amphetamine users ... It was later described in Parkinson's disease.

and

Punding activity is characterized by compulsive fascination with and performance of repetitive, mechanical tasks ...

I originally started listening to the repetitive electronica to help me concentrate as I wrote software code. I hasten to add that I don't consider coding to be purposeless but there is a certain amount of repetition in applying the structured logic to solve a problem. One of my favourite tracks, 'Coastal Reflexions' by East India Youth, starts with several minutes of railway station name announcements over a minimalist electronic riff before giving way as the track builds toward a coruscating climax. Is it a form of punding to listen to several minutes of an impassive female voice listing station names? In truth its mainly that pulsating second half that i'm listening for but perhaps it is food for thought.

East India Youth · Coastal Reflexions

Another track that really helps when i'm coding is Open Eye Signal by John Hopkins. It's linear, propulsive rhythm has also made it a favourite of skateboarders. The idea that I might have discovered a little bit of cross culture between skateboarding, coding and Parkinson's is appealing even if it only exists in my head!

The next reply on the Reddit thread was from MountainSnacks who linked to a YouTube video that shows him walking across a room, touching his hand to his knee with each step without meds or music. He repeats the exercise, still without meds but this time with dance music playing as he walks. The music seems to lend him much greater coordination so he completes the task in half the time, a remarkable improvement.

Exercise has been shown to slow the progression of Parkinson's with boxing and dancing often cited as two of the most effective forms. They both have a strong co-ordination component and it seems that a combined body and brain workout is ideal. When i've seen it used as therapy it has usually been ballroom or salsa classes and in both cases one needs to be thinking about your next move as you are dancing.

Music therapy has been shown to give beneficial effects in treatment of Parkinson's. There has also been research into Auditory Beat Stimulation as a tool to manage moods and cognitive processes. My respondent said in his reply to me that I will see that

music with a strong repetitive helps with PD symptoms

and given that dance, music and repetition each appear to reduce symptoms individually, it seems plausible that a combination of the three will also give positive results.

My attempts at Ceilidh dancing have all ended in pain for my dance partners so I don't think that ballroom dancing is going to be a great success. Instead I think i'll take some notes form Karl Hyde of Underworld as he dances to their classic Born Slippy. Then i'll have a lie down.

If you are interested to see if this sort of music has any kind of beneficial effect for you or you would just like to listen, I've added a Repetitive Beats playlist to the Tremr YouTube channel's library of playlists.

Thanks for reading, I'd be interested to know your thoughts and experiences if you want to comment below. Hope you have a happy Christmas and that we all have a nicer 2021 than 2020 has been.