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Dr. Aniruddh Patel, associate professor of psychology at Tufts University, talks about the use of music therapy to help people with Parkinson’s disease walk fluidly. For Parkinson’s patients, dopamine-producing cells in the brain die and no longer project to important parts of the brain. This leads to numerous motor deficits including tremors, shuffling gait, and a higher risk for falling. However, the auditory motor networks that connect movement with the beat of music are still active, even in Parkinson’s patients. Thus, music therapy may help Parkinson’s patients walk more fluidly because their movement becomes synchronized to the music.