Musiquence: a framework to customize music and reminiscence cognitive stimulation activities for the dementia population.

Due to the limitations of pharmaceutical related approaches for people with dementia (PwD), there has been a need to find complementary methods. Within nonpharmaceutical approaches music and reminiscence-based activities appear to bring advantages to PwD: (1) it is easy to implement, (2) does not lead to side effects, (3) PwD appear to have an intact music memory even at later stages of the disease, among other benefits. However, literature is mixed regarding the long-term benefits of music and reminiscence related approaches in PwD. Another approach that has gained much attention over the years are serious games. However, the usage of technologies and the lack of customizable content may provide an additional challenge to health professionals and family caregivers to utilize such an approach in PwD. In this article, we present a framework called “Musiquence”, which is allows customization of gamified activities in terms of technology and content, with special emphasis on music and reminiscence-based activities. Here we discuss the functionalities of the platform, the activities designed for PwD and future implementations for the platform.

Reference:

Luis Duarte Andrade Ferreira, Sofia Cavaco, & Sergi Bermúdez i Badia. (2019). Musiquence: a framework to customize music and reminiscence cognitive stimulation activities for the dementia population. Presented at the The Experiment@ International Conference 2019 (exp.at’19), Funchal, Portugal: IEEE.