Dementia Patients Find Some Eternal Youth in the Sounds of AC/DC

Last April, Mal­colm Young left AC/DC, the band he co-found­ed with his broth­er Angus in 1973. Only 61 years old, the gui­tarist found him­self unable to remem­ber his famous licks and riffs. The cause, doc­tors dis­cov­ered, was demen­tia. Young now lives in a nurs­ing home where he receives full-time care.

Above, you can watch a video cre­at­ed by the Brazil­ian radio sta­tion 89FM, where, touch­ing­ly, elder­ly Brazil­ians, also suf­fer­ing from demen­tia, lis­ten to the sounds of AC/DC and sum­mon to mind their younger, care­free days, when rock pro­vid­ed their sound­track to their youth. Long live rock…

To under­stand why music seems to trig­ger mem­o­ries in unusu­al ways, and how music ther­a­py can be used to improve the lives of those with demen­tia, see the research cov­ered at Live Sci­ence.

via Ulti­mate Clas­sic Rock

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