We see a frail and elderly woman in a chair, her eyes downcast. She motions for the music to be turned up, a swelling melody from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and with a little encouragement her hands begin to flutter. Then suddenly her eyes flash and she’s Odette the swan queen at the misty lakeside, arms raised. She leans forward, wrists crossed in classic swan pose; her chin lifts as if she’s commanding the stage once more, her face lost in reverie.
The woman in the film is Marta Cinta Gonzalez Saldana, a former ballet dancer who died last year, the year the video was shot. But the clip has gone viral since being posted recently by Spanish organisation Musica Para Despertar (Music to Awaken), which promotes the value of music for those living with Alzheimer’s.
The particular ability of music to connect with people living with even severe dementia is becoming well known.
Photo courtesy of Musica para Despertar 照片：「喚醒的音樂」提供
Auditory memory may be the last thing to leave us because it’s one of the first things we develop, at around 18 weeks in the womb, says Grace Meadows, program director at Music for Dementia. “They’re some of the deepest neural pathways that get laid down,” she says. Our first language, the babbling and cooing of babies and their carers, is a form of musical exchange. “That’s why it’s so deep and why we’re so responsive to it, because it’s so primal.”
That remains true when people have cognitive impairments, partly because music is processed in so many different parts of the brain. If there’s something blocking its neural pathway, it finds another path. And music from formative stages in our lives tends to have the strongest hold, especially around the teenage years and 20s, the “memory bump” as it is called, when so many intense social bonds and new emotions and experiences take place: first loves, moving to new cities, or perhaps dancing your first leading role on stage.
For Saldana, a strong muscle memory is tied to those musical instincts, but you don’t have to have been a professional dancer for music to spark a physical response.
(The Guardian)
我們看到一位年老體弱的女人坐在椅子上，目光低垂。柴可夫斯基《天鵝湖》的悠揚旋律流瀉出，她示意將音量調高，受到一些鼓勵後，她的手開始顫動。然後她的眼睛忽然閃爍起來，便化身為霧氣迷濛湖畔的天鵝女王奧潔塔，舉起雙臂。她俯身，手腕以經典的天鵝姿勢交叉；她將下巴抬起，彷彿再次縱橫舞台，她的臉龐陷入遐思。
影片中的女人是曾為芭蕾舞者的瑪塔‧辛塔‧貢沙雷斯‧沙爾達尼亞，她已在二○一九年，亦即此影片拍攝的同年去世。但該影片自從最近被西班牙組織「喚醒的音樂」（Musica Para Despertar）發布以來便爆紅。「喚醒的音樂」將音樂的價值推廣給阿茲海默症患者。
音樂具有特殊的能力，可以與人溝通，即便是重度失智的人，這一點已漸為周知。
聽覺記憶可能是最後離開我們的，因為它是最先形成的東西之一，大約在子宮內十八週後發展出來，「給失智者的音樂」計畫總監葛雷絲‧梅多斯說道。「所生成的是一些最深層的神經路徑」，她說。我們的第一語言，即嬰兒的咿呀聲及其照顧者的輕柔低語，是一種音樂交流的形式。「這就是為什麼它如此深刻，也是為什麼我們對它那麼有反應，因為它是如此原始」。
即便有認知障礙，情況仍是如此，部分是由於音樂是在大腦許多不同部位處理的。若其神經路徑受到阻礙，它便找到另一條路徑。我們在成長階段所聽的音樂往往具有最強的影響力，尤其是在大約十幾二十歲時，這就是所謂的「記憶隆起」（memory bump），許多強烈的社交聯繫、新的情感與經驗在那段時期發生：初戀、搬到新城市，或是第一次在舞台上扮演主角。
就沙爾達尼亞而言，她強烈的肌肉記憶（muscle memory）與這些音樂本能是密切連結在一起的，但你不需要是專業的音樂舞蹈家才能讓音樂激發身體反應。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
With the international COVID-19 pandemic increasing in severity, tighter border restrictions mean that only a small number of Taiwanese will be able to travel abroad during this year’s Lunar New Year holiday period. As a result, hotels are doing a roaring trade in family reunion dinners this year, with several well-known five-star hotels becoming booked out as early as December last year. Two months ago, the Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel had sold nearly 200 preorders, while places for Lunar New Year dinners at the Okura Taipei and the Fullon Hotel also sold out last year. The pandemic has given a
I certainly won’t miss the commute! (5/5) 我對通勤是絕對不會想念的！（五） A: With global telecommunications, wireless connectivity and the death of the office, it will be possible to work from anywhere. B: So you think you could just take off to a beach or a beautiful, sun-soaked spot in an idyllic part of the world and do your work from there? A: If we could do it, many others could, too. There wouldn’t be an idyllic place left on Earth. They’d all be crowded with people shouting into their mobile devices or tapping away on their keyboards. A: 有了全球電信系統、無線網路，再加上辦公室的消失，以後要在哪裡工作都可以。 B: 所以你想這樣就可以到海邊，或者世界上某個詩情畫意、陽光普照的地方去，在那裡工作？ A: 如果我們可以這樣，很多人也可以呀！這樣地球上就不會有什麼詩情畫意的地方了。因為這些地方都會擠滿人，大家都大聲講手機，或是在鍵盤上劈哩啪啦打字。 （Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱譯） English 英文:
I certainly won’t miss the commute! (4/5) 我對通勤是絕對不會想念的！（四） B: Urban planners are going to have to massively rethink how cities are designed. Business districts will go out of the window. Office buildings will have to be repurposed. Commuter routes will become a thing of the past. A: They will be able to make open, green spaces for people to work in, which will be easier now with all this wireless connectivity. It’s going to be great! B: Careful what you wish for. We might not be tethered to the office, but we’ll still be tied to our mobile devices. We’ll still need to be contactable 24/7, slaves
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