A paper published in the journal Communications Biology from Aarhus University describes how researchers are using a combination of classical music and neurophysiology to map the changes that occur within the brain with age.
The study used works by Johann Sebastian Bach along with MEG and MRI scans to show that older people are just as capable of remembering musical pieces as younger people, but certain parts of their brains have to work harder in order to do so.
Investigate brain compensation for age-related changes
For this study, the participants underwent brain scans while listening to a piano piece, which the participants had only heard twice beforehand to investigate how the brain compensates for age-related changes. The study shows that when the older participants listen to familiar music, sensory-related areas of the brain become extra active, while the regions responsible for memory function become less active.
“This suggests that the sensory areas of older brains work harder to compensate for the reduced response from the areas typically involved in memory processes,” explains Associate Professor Leonardo Bonetti from the Center for Music in the Brain, part of the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University. He conducted the study alongside researchers from the University of Oxford.
“The study emphasizes that changes in brain functionality do not necessarily lead to disease or dysfunction. Aging is not just about having a declining brain, but about having a brain that adapts to challenges and compensates for mechanisms that become less effective,” explained Bonetti.
Expanding to study dementia
During the scans, the participants also listened to altered versions of the original piano melodies. These scans revealed that when the older participants heard the variations, core parts of the brain involved in memory processes reacted less than they did in younger participants, and the activity in sensory-related regions remained unchanged.
“The older group simply does not show the same brain responses when hearing new variations of the music as the younger group. This may help explain the mechanism that makes it challenging for older people to cope with changes in general,” said Bonetti. “We are now planning to expand the study to include people with mild dementia. The hope is that we can identify biomarkers and use the data to predict how changes in brain functionality indicate the likelihood of developing dementia.”
Bach’s music is suited for memory studies
Bach’s music is easy to remember because it combines strong harmonies and a clear hierarchical structure. These are repeated many times, especially in the Prelude in C Minor from Das Wohltemperirte Clavier. The researchers created a simplified and controlled version of this to use in this study.
“The participants heard the piece twice and then remembered it. In memory research, music is often better than, for example, numbers or text, because it is intuitively memorable. This allows us more easily to discover how the brain processes information over time. Therefore, music is an excellent tool for understanding how the brain changes its function to support memory as we age,” explained Bonetti.
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