Study: Music can prevent cognitive decline

Progressive cognitive decline is associated with normal ageing Can we however train our brain to postpone this process A team of researchers from the University of Geneva UNIGE HESSO Geneva and EPFL discovered that practising and listening to music can slow cognitive decline in healthy seniors by increasing grey matter production The researchers followed over 100 retired people who had never played music before to achieve these results For six months they were enrolled in piano and music awareness classes These findings open up new avenues for promoting healthy ageingThey were published in NeuroImage ReportsThroughout our lives our brain remodels itself Brain morphology and connections change according to the environment and the experiences for instance when we learn new skills or overcome the consequences of a stroke However as we age this brain plasticity decreases The brain also loses grey matter where our precious neurons are located This is known as brain atrophyGradually a cognitive decline appears Working memory at the core of many cognitive processes is one of the cognitive functions suffering 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 languageA study led by the UNIGE HESSO Geneva and EPFL revealed that music practice and active listening could prevent working memory decline Such activities promoted brain plasticity they were associated with grey matter volume increase Positive impacts have also been measured on working memory 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 livesPracticing music vs listening to musicWe 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 ones 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 SciencesThe 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 dayPositive effects on both groupsAfter six months we found common effects for both interventions Neuroimaging revealed an increase in grey matter in four brain regions involved in highlevel cognitive functioning in all participants including cerebellum areas involved in working memory Their performance increased by 637 and this result was directly correlated to the plasticity of the cerebellum says Clara James last author of the study a privatdocent at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of UNIGE and full professor at the Geneva School of Health Sciences The scientists 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 performanceHowever the researchers also found a difference between the two groups In the pianists the volume of grey 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 ageing in specific regions says Damien MarieThese 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 ageing 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 ageing and dementiaAlso Read Experts say current heatwave in India is fatal for kids pregnant women elderlyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever