Robotic Music Therapy Assistant: A Cognitive Game Playing Robot

Music Therapy is a non-pharmacological treatment used to maintain/enhance cognitive abilities, on the basis that music is able to simultaneously activate multiple brain functions. In this paper we propose the combination of Music Therapy (MT) with cognitive training games administered by a humanoid robot (QT robot of LUXAI). This intervention is intended to mitigate cognitive decline in individuals with mild cognition impairment, while reducing the load on therapists and care staff, by offering MT to a larger population. The four implemented music-themed cognitive games elicit activation of different sets of cognitive functions, producing an overall multi-domain treatment, and adapt to subject’s preferences, skills and progress. We present here results from two pilot studies on our robotic-aided MT setup, and identify key factors necessary to increasing the success and feasibility of the approach.