Dementia and music

I was watching The One Show (U.K) last night and saw a section on Snow Patrol's lead singer Gary Lightbody discussing his father who has got Dementia and how playing certain songs trigger memories for him. And that really hit me as seeing the light in his fathers eyes brighten at certain songs and help him remember certain times in his life and memories which he had lost due to dementia. And seeing him happily talk with his Son (which he sometimes didn't know who he was!) was really emotionally.
But I was thinking how certain songs bring back memories to us all and how can help our moods. I know if I put on Prince it helps me cheer up! And I can get on with doing jobs I need to do! So music does help us in all types of ways!

I feel the same way. When I woke from my coma, I had lost a decade of my memory (give or take a year or two). Finding and listening to my old iPod helped bring back a lot of memories.

When I had my anaphylactic shock and got temporary Amnesia it was listening to certain music that helped me to remember certain things that was like stepping stones to my memory coming back. I still have big parts of my memory that are blank in my life still today.