Music and Cognitive Function: Listening is Good, Playing is Better

📖 Literature Information and Abstract Translation

Music Engagement and Episodic Memory among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A National Cross-Sectional Analysis

Rouse, Hillary J., et al. "Music Engagement and Episodic Memory among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A National Cross-Sectional Analysis." The Journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 2022 Mar 3;77(3):558-566.

🔗 DOI, PubMed, Google Scholar

[Background/Objective] To clarify whether music listening affects performance on episodic memory tasks in middle-aged and older adults.

[Methods] This study used secondary data analysis from a sample of cognitively healthy adults (N = 4,592) from the 2016 Health and Retirement Study. Multivariate regression models were used to analyze cross-sectional differences in episodic memory task performance between participants who listen to music (N = 3,659) and those who sing or play instruments (N = 989).

[Results] On average, participants recalled 10.3 out of 20 words. Regression analysis showed that listening to music and singing or playing an instrument were each independently and significantly associated with better episodic memory. Respondents who reported listening to music recalled an average of 0.443 more words on the episodic memory task compared to those who did not (p = .002), and those who reported singing or playing an instrument recalled an average of 0.396 more words compared to those who did not (p = 0.006). Sensitivity analysis revealed that participants who both listened to music and played an instrument recalled an average of 0.809 more words on the episodic memory task compared to those who did neither (p < 0.001).

[Discussion] These results provide the first population-based evidence that music engagement is associated with improved episodic memory in middle-aged and older adults. Future research should examine whether the relationship between music engagement and episodic memory is replicated in other populations and whether it persists in longitudinal studies.

🌱 So What?: What did I find interesting?

The power of music. Music is an amazing thing that instantly evokes a multitude of emotions—joy, sadness, melancholy, anger, and more.
Indeed, scent and music form a reflex arc with emotions.
They access emotions directly, bypassing the clumsy, sluggish agent known as thought.
And, the fact that emotions are stirred also means that thoughts are set in motion. It might be a sequence of emotion first, then thought.
As for the mechanism at the pathological level, emotions are linked to the basal ganglia, and the basal ganglia are linked to the prefrontal cortex (cognitive loop) (🌍 Reference site >>> site).
Therefore, it is thought that emotions drive the basal ganglia, and the basal ganglia drive thought.

Music might be the lubricant that keeps the emotion-basal ganglia-prefrontal cortex gears turning smoothly.
It all connects!!!
That is why music is so effective for Parkinson's disease (please definitely check out the note & YouTube below❗️).

And it seems that the power is roughly doubled by both listening and playing, rather than just listening or just playing.
My daughter's melodica is right in front of me now.

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