June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. This cause is close to our hearts, and we encourage you to join the fight by giving to organizations that support those affected by neurocognitive diseases and their families. Franne is proud to be part of Music Mends Minds.



the mission
Music Mends Minds is a nonprofit that creates musical support groups for individuals with Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and other neurological disorders.
the vision
To foster worldwide communities among afflicted individuals and their families, friends, volunteers, and caregivers, all of whom can thrive on socialization and music-making.
MUSIC HAS POSITIVE EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN
Researchers have been confirming the beneficial effects of music therapy and exploring it as a viable alternative treatment in delaying the symptoms of neurodegenerative dementias. Music has been shown to synchronize the mind, and playing a musical instrument is likened to a full-body workout for the brain, integrating motor function, heightened sensory and auditory function, emotion, and other higher-order processes of the brain. In addition, it seems to affect lower, more primitive areas of the brain as well. The effect? Music seems to be retained in the brain differently from other sorts of cognition such as memory and language and can be accessed as a form of communication when other avenues are lost.
