Can music improve mental acuity at any age?

Is there a song that whenever you hear it, takes you back to a moment in time? For me, it’s U2’s With Or Without You. When I was in college, this song was wildly popular. It was the band’s first number-one hit in the United States and Canada. You couldn’t walk through our dorm (or pretty much anywhere on campus) without hearing it. For me, this song brings back many carefree moments: sitting on a blanket in the warm spring sun studying, walking through the dorm rounding up friends to head to dinner, hanging out with my roommate and sharing our deepest hopes for the future.

Music seems to have a magical quality that can transport us back in time and evoke emotions. Because of this, I’ve been intrigued by research on music therapy and its potential as a treatment for overall brain health. 

Music has been shown to aid memory, decrease aggravation, and promote social interaction between caregivers and dementia patients. The documentary “Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory” proposes music as a treatment option for improving the quality of life for patients with diseases that impair neurological function. The treatment involves creating and using customized playlists of music people enjoyed before their dementia or cognitive decline. Based on the research shown in the documentary, both the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Texas Health and Human Services were inspired to create music and memory programs using methodology from the non-profit organization Music & Memory. The successes they report on improving the quality of life for people with cognitive impairments include:

• Observed enjoyment in people with dementia
• Increased engagement with family and friends
• Reduced reliance on antipsychotic and anti-anxiety medications
• Calmer social interactions and reduced agitation and sundowning
• Reduced use of bed and chair alarms
• Reduced pain, falls and depression

What if music is like many other healthful practices in that starting earlier tends to reap cumulative protective benefits? 

If music can help improve the quality of life for people with diseases of cognitive impairment, can it help prevent or slow the development of cognitive issues? Perhaps. Research shows music helps us retrieve memories AND create new ones. So much so that Johns Hopkins Medicine asserts that playing or listening to music can be exercise for the brain. Using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), researchers studied which areas of the brain light up when engaged with music. It turns out that music stimulates multiple areas of the brain as it works to make sense of the inputs. Listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. Music may be a powerful tool that can help keep our brains healthy as we age.

Another way music may benefit brain health at any age is through acquisition (learning to play an instrument or singing). The concept of brain plasticity is that our brains form new neural connections over time through experiences. One study showed healthy older adults who were given piano lessons for 6 months had significant improvement in their brain’s grey matter (the part of the brain that processes information and is important for learning).  

Additional research shows music is important for children, too. Music may help children develop executive functions (cognitive functions that include planning, working memory, inhibition, and flexibility). Listening to music during pregnancy can also positively affect a baby’s brain development in utero.

Music may be more important than something we simply enjoy. It appears to play a significant role in cognitive development and health throughout our lives. So listen up – at every age!