Dance eases depression symptoms in Parkinson's patients, new study suggests

A new study found that Parkinson's disease patients who took dance classes experienced fewer symptoms of depression, with dance having "a positive effect on the mood circuits in the brain."

Not only did depression symptoms ease for the Parkinson's patients, their brain scans displayed changes in their brain areas related to mood, researchers said. The team measured mood and depression scores in all participants.  "What we're trying to do is to have people live a better quality of life." Maureen Mackey is managing editor of lifestyle at Fox News Digital.

"It was very cool to see that dance had a positive effect on the mood circuits in the brain, which we could see in the imaging," senior researcher Joseph DeSouza, an associate professor of neuroscience at York University in Toronto, Canada, said in a university news release.