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Musiquence – Design, Implementation and Validation of a Customizable Music and Reminiscence Cognitive Stimulation Platform for People with Dementia

Dementia is a neurodegenerative diseaseay only perceivable decades later. The disease leads to a gradual loss of memory, learning, orientation, language, and comprehension skills, which compromises activities of daily li Musiquence, in which healthcare professionals can create music and reminiscence based cognitive activities to stimulate people with dementia. In this dissertation, we present the results from several studies about the usage and effects that music and reminiscence have on such a population. We performed two studies using Musiquence to study the feasibility of a novel learning method based on musical feedback to aid people with dementia during task performance in virtual reality settings. Results show that participants relied more on music-based feedback during the task performance of virtual reality activities than in other forms of feedback. Also, data suggest that the music-based feedback system can improve task performance, compensating for some dementia-related deficits. We also used Musiquence in a longitudinal one-month-long pilot study to assess its efficacy when used for a cognitive stimulation intervention in dementia patients. The results of the study are promising. The participants showed improvements in terms of general cognition, quality of life, mood, and verbal fluency.