Using audiobooks to sharpen your verbal memory with Parkinson's disease

There is a neuropsychological test used to measure memory that is referred to as “stories.” See our recent Facebook video on using audiobooks to sharpen your verbal memory with Parkinson’s disease.

The story recall test is used to evaluate verbal memory function.

Verbal memory is defined as the ability to remember what you read or hear.

Verbal memory has been described as hearing a word, sentence or paragraph— the subject is then asked to recall what they have heard.

In the procedure a person is told a story and asked to recall key events from the reading by a neuropsychologist or by a psychometrist.

We have found it useful to use a modification of the test as a “home based exercise” —we have persons with Parkinson’s disease and folks with memory disorders listen to an audiobook— or listen to a book on tape.

We recommend listening with a partner, colleague or friend.

We also recommend to stop at the end of each chapter and to have a discussion about the contents and events in the chapter.

If both listeners agree on the events and order of the chapter we recommend proceeding to listen to the next chapter and repeating the discussion.

This procedure provides an enjoyable activity that has the potential to help folks improve their recall and “stories memory.”

To read more books and articles by Michael S. Okun MD check on Twitter @MichaelOkun and these websites with blogs and information on his books and http://parkinsonsecrets.com/ #Livingwith Parkinson’s #EndingPD #Parkinsonsecrets #LessonsFromTheBedside

He also serves as the Medical Advisor for the Parkinson’s Foundation.

To see more on Dr. Indu Subramanian she does live interviews of experts in Parkinson’s for the PMD Alliance.

The blog artist is Jonny Acheson.