Development of electronic musical instrument for Cognitive rehabilitation of mild cognitive impairment

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K01596
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: Setsunan University
• Principal Investigator: Okuno Ryuhei 摂南大学, 理工学部, 教授 (90294199)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 一ノ瀬 智子 武庫川女子大学, 音楽学部, 教授 (80388800)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 音楽療法 / 電子楽器 / 認知症 / 合奏 / 呼気

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we developed a new electronic musical instrument playing system for elderly people who have little experience in playing musical instruments for prevention of dementia. We developed two type of prototype devices for our developed electronic musical instrument, Cyber Musical Instrument with Score (Cymis). One was a device that controls the sounding time by the expiratory pressure. The other was a device that controls the sounding time by the movement of the mouse and gripping force. We performed a music performance experiment with five healthy subjects and showed usefulness of the developed musical instrument. As a preliminary experiment, a music performance experiment was conducted on 30 patients with moderate dementia, and it was suggested that Cymis could be performed alone or with the assistance of music therapists.

Free Research Field

生体医工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の学術的意義としては，高齢者の楽曲演奏と運動・認知機能のトレーニングを可能とする点にある．すなわち，種々の演奏デバイスを用いることで，演奏者の興味，個別の運動機能に合わせることができるため，楽器演奏初心者でも継続的に音楽活動を行うことが可能である．また，合奏は認知機能のトレーニングになるとともに，高齢者のコミュニケーションの機会を創出することになることで，高齢者施設等での普及が期待できる点において社会的な意義がある．