{"id":344266,"date":"2025-12-14T08:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T08:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/344266\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T08:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T08:02:08","slug":"study-to-research-effects-of-singing-on-parkinsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/344266\/","title":{"rendered":"Study to research effects of singing on Parkinson&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">People with Parkinson&#8217;s are being asked to help with a study exploring if singing can improve facial mobility and expression capability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The study is a partnership between the University of Suffolk&#8217;s Institute of Health and Wellbeing, the University of Essex, East Suffolk and North East Essex NHS Foundation Trust and Britten Pears Arts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Participants will take part in weekly singing sessions at Britten Pears Arts&#8217; East Suffolk Skylarks group and be compared with a control group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dr Abigail Webb from the University of Suffolk said no study to date had evaluated the efficacy of singing as a rehabilitative tool to improve facial mobility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Parkinson&#8217;s is a condition where part of the brain becomes progressively damaged over many years, according <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/parkinsons-disease\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:to the NHS;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">to the NHS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A reduction or loss in facial movements and expressions effects 92% of people living with Parkinson&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Researchers believe that the exaggerated facial movements required in singing could help improve muscle strength and enhance circulation in a fun, non-clinical way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The study is looking for 20 people with Parkinson&#8217;s to take part in the weekly two-hour Skylarks programme that begins on 8 January over 12 weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A further 20 people also living with Parkinson&#8217;s are being sought for the control group, who will not sing, and instead have their facial expressions and movements measured and compared with the singing group.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"The University of Suffolk building. It is a large sloped building covered in windows and blue and white panels. Two people are walking past with others entering one of the doors. A large question mark sculpture is lying down on the right of the image. A blue sky with white clouds is overhead. \" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/856733649ae09240044df49360c4bbfb.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The control group will visit the University of Suffolk [Martin Giles\/BBC]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Many local and national incentives demonstrate the impact of singing on the physical and psychological wellbeing of people living with Parkinson&#8217;s, but no study to date has evaluated them for their efficacy as a rehabilitative tool to improve facial mobility,&#8221; Dr Webb said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;By delivering a fun, non-clinical intervention that can help address the symptoms of facial hypomimia, we will measure whether facial exercises in these sessions influence facial mobility and self-confidence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dr Sebastian Korb, from the University of Essex&#8217;s Department of Psychology, added the project was an &#8220;initial step in the quest to better understand the role of mobility in emotion&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow Suffolk news on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/curation\/p0cjdz3v?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:BBC Sounds;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">BBC Sounds<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BBCSuffolk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbceastofengland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BBCsuffolk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Stories like thisRelated internet links<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People with Parkinson&#8217;s are being asked to help with a study exploring if singing can improve facial mobility&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[150287,150281,49,48,150285,150283,150289,84,150290,150286,150284,150288,150282],"class_list":["post-344266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-abigail-webb","tag-britten-pears-arts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-east-suffolk","tag-facial-mobility","tag-facial-movements","tag-health","tag-north-east-essex-nhs-foundation-trust","tag-people-with-parkinson","tag-singing-group","tag-university-of-essex","tag-university-of-suffolk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}