The RadioMe project aims to play the right music at the right time for people with mild to moderate dementia who live alone, helping them maintain their independence by overriding live radio with personalised reminders and soothing music as and when needed.
A wearable that was used in the RadioMe study has been put under glass for the science museum exhibition Turn It Up! – The Power of Music. The exhibition was hosted by the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester from October 2022 to May 2023, and has now moved to the Science Museum in London.
Most music-based research in dementia has been conducted in care homes, so little has been reported on the recruitment, retention and playlist compilation process for home-based studies, nor the efficacy of interventions.
Listening to preferred or relaxing and calming music has been reported to help manage agitation (Livingston et al., 2014) and have a positive effect on other behavioural and psychological symptoms (Gaviola et al., 2022).
In dementia research, few studies have examined whether the effects of preferred music selected by the patient differs from researcher or carer selected. One study compared preferred with non-preferred music (Zare et al, 2010) and reported benefits from both on reducing agitation. In healthy controls who were university students, the disparity between responses to liked and disliked music was quite subtle, which the authors suggest is down to the small amount of separation between their liked and disliked music genres.
The benefits of understanding more about the responses of people with dementia when listening to liked and disliked songs and music, are that algorithmically driven music selection based on genre could be refined and if adverse effects are known to occur with disliked music, these can be avoided. The refinement could be based on memories and associations being factored into the algorithm.
Such additional knowledge could also make group music listening activities safer and more enjoyable for people with dementia, reducing the risk of stress or upset through inadvertent disliked music selection.
Since October 2019, we have been running RadioMe, a project using artificial intelligence to adapt and personalise live radio, with the aim of designing and testing a radio system for people with dementia who are still living independently which:
RadioMe will address key causes of care home admission for people living with dementia, such as agitation and other neuropsychiatric symptoms. As a result, it is hoped that quality of life will improve, and people will be able to remain living independently at home for longer.
This Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded project (EP/S026959/1) will capitalise on the popularity of radio amongst the age group most likely to be living with dementia, developing a way to seamlessly ‘remix’ live digital broadcasts so that listeners will receive personalised reminders, information and music.
A user switching on the radio in the morning might find their usual local station. However, at certain points a DJ-like voice could override the real DJ and remind the listener to have a drink or prepare for an appointment. RadioMe might detect that the listener is becoming agitated via their bio-bracelet readings. The software could then override the scheduled song choice and select a song from the user’s personal library, known to be likely to calm them.
Professor
Senior Research Fellow
