Why Dance and Rhythmic Exercise Are Effective for Dementia Prevention

Hello everyone!

How are you all doing amidst this rapidly aging society? I'm Hayakawa, known to you as an evangelist for Dance and Rhythmic Exercise!

In the category of dementia prevention, Dance and Rhythmic Exercise consistently hold the top spot! But why? The reasons for this success are rarely discussed in public. (We all hear that aerobic exercise is announced to maintain and improve hippocampal function, right?)

Today, we're going to uncover the true reason!

To get straight to the point: the key to preventing dementia is activating "Procedural Memory." That is the answer. Has anyone heard of this term, "procedural memory," before?

"Procedural Memory" = The "Learn by Imitation" Function

From childhood, we've learned countless movements through imitation:

• How to walk

• How to speak

• How to eat

• How to choose and wear clothes for the seasons

• How to drive a car or ride a bicycle

• How to operate a PC or smartphone

  
  

The list of actions we've mastered is endless. The function that allows us to learn movements through the body is called "procedural memory"! Even Shohei Ohtani's batting and pitching forms are entirely thanks to the power of "procedural memory"!

Your Joints Remember

The brain, muscles, bones, and joints are the working parts of "procedural memory." It is the joints that I want to highlight specifically!

Your joints store the perfect, intuitive form for gripping a bat or a ball and controlling your center of gravity—the form that produces the optimal result. This isn't just true for baseball; the same applies to your daily life.

Without needing to hit a 55th home run, your joints remember the optimal sequence of movements that allows your daily life to run smoothly.

However, while "learning by imitation" is active in childhood, adolescence, and middle age, it tends to stagnate in old age. As the body declines with age, the movements we worked so hard to learn are replaced by feelings of "it's too much effort" or "it's a hassle."

So, what is the raw ingredient for "procedural memory"?

It is the emotions of Interest, Curiosity, Sense of Responsibility, and Acceptance.

In childhood, we play with toys that spark interest and curiosity, moving our hands, assembling things, expanding our imagination, and learning actions. In our youth and middle age, a sense of responsibility drives our memory acquisition. Furthermore, accepting diverse values within society influences our actions.

The emotions opposite to "it's a hassle" or "it's too much effort" are the fuel for procedural memory! Without interest and curiosity, you can't activate your memory. Without responsibility, you won't work hard to learn anything. It is because you have accepted various things that you are who you are today.

You have sufficiently fulfilled your "responsibilities" in life. You don't need to push yourself any harder. However, we live in a 100-year era. Life still goes on. Should you simply forget the motor memory you've worked so hard to acquire?

The Role of Dance and Rhythmic Exercise

The most effective way to activate "procedural memory" is to reactivate the physical functions of the brain, muscles, bones, and joints that you used throughout your childhood and adult life!

Learning and remembering by imitating the instructor's movements, combined with the challenge of keeping to a tempo, creates a simulated experience that uses the same functions as when you were driven by necessity earlier in life!

This is why Dance and Rhythmic Exercise are consistently at the top of the dementia prevention category.

If you are someone who thinks, "I have absolutely no interest in dancing," please give it a try. You can do it while sitting! If you make a mistake or mess up, you will absolutely not be held responsible. It's just a game—can you do it, or can't you?

Come and empathize with others' inability to perform the moves, laugh together, and experience that small victory of getting a step right.

You might just find new friends there who will accept you as you are.

Dementia is suggested to be a dual problem involving both mental health issues and a decline in visceral function. Alzheimer’s disease was first reported in 1906—about 150 years after the Industrial Revolution, or 120 years ago from the present. Dementia is a disease of the modern age—a "mind-body issue" of society and the people who work within it.