Gaby
A team of researchers at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada reached that conclusion.
Typically, aging takes a toll on memory. Names, events, and timelines can become somewhat blurred over time, even in people who have not been diagnosed with dementia or any other neurological condition.
A new study shows the ability to recall favorite pieces of music can persist into old age. The researchers suggest the unique connections people form with musical sounds may serve as building blocks that help patients with neurodegenerative diseases form new memories.
What the Researchers Discovered
The study involved 90 healthy participants aged 18 to 86 and was conducted with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Volunteers listened to three different compositions performed by the orchestra: Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” and two new experimental pieces commissioned for the study by the School of Music at Newfoundland. The first new piece, titled “Pirate Waltz,” had a pleasant, classical sound, while the second, called “Unexpectedly Absent,” featured atonal, jarring material, as reported by Popular Science.
Before performing each piece, the orchestra played the main theme from the composition. Listeners were asked to memorize that theme. Once the piece was fully performed, participants were instructed to press a button as soon as they heard the main theme again, played by a solo instrumentalist. Participants in their eighties identified the themes as accurately as younger listeners.
“Overall, we did not find a significant age effect on the task of recognizing the theme of the musical piece,” the researchers wrote in their report.
Participants generally recalled the theme from Mozart’s piece much better than the themes from the two newly commissioned compositions. Of the two new pieces, the group remembered the theme from the first one better.
The authors say the lack of an age effect suggests musical cues can stimulate cognitive subsystems, enhancing encoding and later recognition.
Listeners accurately identified the theme from the Mozart piece they had heard before, indicating that past performances can be deeply encoded in memory. The study’s authors suggested musical melodies could serve as a “cognitive foundation” that helps form and retain new memories.
The study adds evidence that recognition memory in real listening situations isn’t age-dependent, suggesting music recognition could be a reliable foundation on which to build other aspects of recall during rehabilitation for patients with cognitive disorders.
The study also suggests new words or concepts may be easier to remember over time if they are tied to a musical memory.
The results were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
