Play Music to Prevent Memory Decline

With aging comes inevitable cognitive decline. Is there a way we can trick the brain into delaying the process? A recent study suggests that practicing and listening to music can alter cognitive decline in healthy seniors by stimulating the production of gray matter. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO) Geneva, and École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). The researchers followed over 100 retired people who had never practiced music before. They were enrolled in piano and music awareness training for six months. These results open new prospects for the support of healthy aging. They are reported in NeuroImage: Reports.

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How Does Cognitive Decline Happen?

The brain remodels itself throughout our lives. The structure of the brain and its connections change according to the environment and the experiences. For example, when we learn new skills or overcome the consequences of a stroke. Nevertheless, as we age, this ‘brain plasticity’ decreases. The brain also loses gray matter, where our neurons are located. This is known as ‘brain atrophy’.

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What is Working Memory and Why Does it Matter?

Over a period of time, cognitive decline sets in. Working memory, at the center of many cognitive processes, is one of the cognitive functions that suffer the most. Working memory is defined as the process in which we briefly retain and manipulate information in order to achieve a goal, such as remembering a telephone number long enough to write it down or translating a sentence from a foreign language.

This study was conducted among 132 healthy retirees from 62 to 78 years of age. One of the conditions for participation was that they had not taken any music lessons for more than six months in their lives.

The study shows that music practice and active listening could prevent working memory decline. Such activities promoted brain plasticity and they were associated with gray matter volume increase. Positive impacts have also been measured on working memory.

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How Practicing Music is Different From Listening to Music

''We wanted people whose brains did not yet show any traces of plasticity linked to musical learning. Indeed, even a brief learning experience in the course of one's life can leave imprints on the brain, which would have biased our results'', explains Damien Marie, first author of the study, a research associate at the CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, the Faculty of Medicine and the Interfaculty Center for Affective Sciences (CISA) of UNIGE, as well as at the Geneva School of Health Sciences.

The participants were randomly assigned to two groups, regardless of their motivation to play an instrument. The second group had active listening lessons, which focused on instrument recognition and analysis of musical properties in a wide range of musical styles. The classes lasted one hour. Participants in both groups were required to do homework for half an hour a day.

Music Can be Good for Your Brain Either Way

“After six months, we found common effects for both interventions. Neuroimaging revealed an increase in gray matter in four brain regions involved in high-level cognitive functioning in all participants, including cerebellum areas involved in working memory. Their performance increased by 6% and this result was directly correlated to the plasticity of the cerebellum,'' said Clara James, the last author of the study, a privat-docent at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of UNIGE, and full professor at the Geneva School of Health Sciences.

Researchers also found that the quality of sleep, the number of lessons followed over the course of the intervention, and the daily training quantity, had a positive impact on the degree of improvement in performance.

Music Can Prevent Aging Rather than Reversing it

However, the researchers also found a difference between the two groups. In the pianists, the volume of gray matter remained stable in the right primary auditory cortex - a key region for sound processing, whereas it decreased in the active listening group. ''In addition, a global brain pattern of atrophy was present in all participants. Therefore, we cannot conclude that musical interventions rejuvenate the brain. They only prevent aging in specific regions,'' says Damien Marie.

These results show that practicing and listening to music promotes brain plasticity and cognitive reserve. The authors of the study believe that these playful and accessible interventions should become a major policy priority for healthy aging. The next step for the team is to evaluate the potential of these interventions in people with mild cognitive impairment, an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia.

Reference:

1. Music interventions in 132 healthy older adults enhance cerebellar grey matter and auditory working memory, despite general brain atrophy - (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666956023000119)

Source-Medindia