Listening to music immediately after learning improves memory in older adults and Alzheimer’s patients

Listening to music immediately after learning new information may help improve memory retention in older adults and individuals with mild Alzheimer’s disease. A new study published in the journal Memory provides evidence that emotionally stimulating music can enhance specific types of memory recall, while relaxing music might help fade negative memories. These findings suggest that low-cost, music-based interventions could play a supportive role in managing cognitive decline.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition that damages neurological structures essential for processing information. This damage typically begins in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. These areas are vital for forming new episodic memories. As the disease advances, individuals often struggle to recall specific events or details from their recent past.

A common symptom in the early stages of Alzheimer’s is false recognition. This occurs when a person incorrectly identifies a new object or event as something they have seen before. Memory scientists explain this through dual-process theories. These theories distinguish between recollection and familiarity. Recollection involves retrieving specific details about an event. Familiarity is a general sense that one has encountered something previously.

In Alzheimer’s disease, the capacity for detailed recollection often declines before the sense of familiarity does. Patients may rely on that vague sense of familiarity when trying to recognize information. This reliance can lead them to believe they have seen a new image or heard a new story when they have not. Reducing these false recognition errors is a key goal for cognitive interventions.

While specific memory systems degrade, the brain’s ability to process emotions often remains relatively intact for longer. Research indicates that emotional events are generally easier to remember than neutral ones. This emotional memory enhancement relies on the amygdala. This small, almond-shaped structure in the brain processes emotional arousal.

The amygdala interacts with the hippocampus to strengthen the storage of emotional memories. Activity in the amygdala can trigger the release of adrenal hormones and neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine. These chemicals help solidify neural connections. This process suggests that stimulating the amygdala might help strengthen associated memories.

Researchers have explored whether music can serve as that stimulus. Music is known to induce strong emotional responses and activate the brain’s reward systems. Previous studies with young adults found that listening to music after learning can improve memory retention. The research team behind the current study aimed to see if this effect extended to older adults and those with Alzheimer’s.

“Our team, led by Dr. Wanda Rubinstein, began researching music-based interventions to improve memory around ten years ago, with a focus on emotional memory. The results regarding the effect of music on younger adults’ memory were promising. When presented after the learning phase, music improved visual and verbal memory,” said study author Julieta Moltrasio, a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, the University of Palermo, and University of Buenos Aires.

“Additionally, several studies have shown that people with dementia can remember familiar songs even when they forget important events from their past. My supervisor and I work with people with dementia, so we wanted to further explore the use of music as an intervention for this population. Specifically, we wanted to explore whether music could help them learn new emotional material, such as emotional pictures.”

The study included 186 participants living in Argentina. The sample consisted of 93 individuals diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s disease and 93 healthy older adults. A notable aspect of this group was their educational background. Many participants had lower levels of formal education than is typical in neuroscience research. This inclusion helps broaden the applicability of the scientific findings to a more diverse population.

The researchers engaged the participants in two sessions separated by one week. In the first session, participants viewed a series of 36 pictures. These images were drawn from a standardized database used in psychological research. The pictures varied in emotional content. Some were positive, some were negative, and others were neutral.

After viewing the images, the researchers divided the participants into three groups. Each group experienced a different auditory condition for three minutes. One group listened to emotionally arousing music. The researchers selected the third movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 70 for this condition. This piece features unexpected changes in volume and rhythm intended to create high energy.

A second group listened to relaxing music. The researchers used Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major for this condition. This piece is characterized by a slow tempo and repetitive, predictable patterns. The third group served as a control and listened to white noise. White noise provides a constant background sound without musical structure.

Immediately after this listening phase, participants performed memory tasks. They were asked to describe as many pictures as they could remember. They also completed a recognition task. The researchers showed them the original pictures mixed with new ones. Participants had to identify which images they had seen before.

One week later, the participants returned for the second session. They repeated the recall and recognition tasks to test their long-term memory of the images. They did not listen to the music again during this second session. This design allowed the researchers to test whether the music played immediately after learning helped consolidate the memories over time.

The results showed that emotional memory was largely preserved in both groups. Both the healthy older adults and the patients with Alzheimer’s remembered emotional pictures better than neutral ones. This confirms that the ability to prioritize emotional information remains functional even when other cognitive processes decline.

The type of music played after the learning phase had distinct effects on memory performance one week later. For healthy older adults, listening to the emotionally arousing music led to better delayed recall. They were able to describe more of the positive and neutral pictures compared to those who listened to white noise. This suggests that the physiological arousal caused by the music helped lock in the memories formed just moments before.

For the participants with Alzheimer’s disease, the benefit manifested differently. The arousing music did not increase the total number of items they could recall. It did, however, improve their accuracy in the recognition task. Patients who listened to the stimulating music made fewer false recognition errors one week later. They were less likely to incorrectly confuse a new picture for an old one.

This reduction in false recognition implies that the music may have strengthened the specific details of the memory. By boosting the recollection process, the intervention helped patients distinguish between what they had actually seen and what merely felt familiar. This specific improvement in discrimination is significant for a condition defined by memory blurring.

The researchers also found a distinct effect for the relaxing music condition. Participants who listened to Pachelbel’s Canon showed a decrease in their ability to recognize negative pictures one week later. This finding was consistent across both the healthy older adults and those with Alzheimer’s.

“Our findings showed that emotionally arousing music improves memory in older adults and patients with dementia, while relaxing music decreases negative memories,” Moltrasio told PsyPost. “Based on previous research, we already knew that relaxing music could decrease memory, but we did not expect to find that it could specifically reduce negative memories in the populations we studied. If relaxing music can reduce the memory of negative images, these findings could be useful in developing treatments for people with negative memories, such as those with PTSD.”

“I also want to highlight that although the effects of highly familiar music on emotion and memory have been well-studied, our research proved that non-familiar music can also have a significant impact. This is important because it shows that music can have a powerful effect even if you don’t have a special connection to it.”

These observed effects align with the synaptic tagging hypothesis. This biological theory suggests that creating a memory involves a temporary tag at the synapse, the connection between neurons. If a strong stimulus follows the initial event, it triggers protein synthesis that stabilizes that tag. In this study, the music likely provided the necessary stimulation to solidify the preceding visual memories.

The research indicates that “even low-cost, easily replicable interventions, such as listening to music, can positively impact the memory of individuals experiencing memory loss,” Moltrasio explained. “These findings may help other researchers and developers create targeted treatments. Furthermore, certain brain regions (e.g., those related to music listening) can remain intact even when memory is impaired. We hope these findings offer researchers, caregivers, health professionals, and relatives of people with Alzheimer’s disease a glimmer of hope.”

“Although the results were promising, the size of the effects was not large. This means that the difference between the group that received the musical treatment and the group that did not is not very big. However, it is worth noting that we did find differences between the groups. This is the first study to prove that a music intervention after learning improves memory in Alzheimer’s disease.”

Additionally, the control condition used white noise. While standard in research, white noise can sometimes be aversive to listeners. Future studies might compare music to silence to ensure the effects are driven by the music itself and not a reaction to the noise. The researchers also note that they did not directly measure physiological arousal, such as heart rate, to confirm the participants’ physical reactions to the music.

Future research aims to explore these mechanisms further. The research team is interested in how familiar music might affect memory and whether active engagement, such as singing or playing instruments, might offer more potent benefits. They are also investigating how the ability to recognize emotions in music changes with dementia. Understanding these nuances could lead to more targeted, non-pharmacological therapies for memory loss.

“We are currently investigating how music is processed and the effects of musical training on cognition,” Moltrasio told PsyPost. “One line of research focuses on how young and older adults, as well as people with dementia, process emotions in music. Among younger adults, we have examined differences in music emotion recognition and other cognitive domains, such as short-term memory and verbal and nonverbal reasoning, between musicians and non-musicians. We have also examined how personality traits may affect the recognition of emotions in music.”

“Regarding Alzheimer’s disease, we are investigating whether the ability to detect emotions in music is impaired. Even when their ability to process other emotional cues, such as those expressed through facial expressions, is impaired, they may still be able to distinguish certain emotions in music. This could be useful for developing music-based interventions that build on these participants’ abilities.”

“Another line of research that I would like to pursue is the effect of familiar music on memory,” Moltrasio continued. “Based on this research, we could develop specific interventions for people with dementia using familiar music. I am not currently working on this line of research, but it could be the next step for me and my team.”

“Our study emphasizes the importance of researching simple, low-cost interventions for dementia. This is particularly relevant when considering the demographics of individuals living with dementia in countries like Argentina. Most neuroscience research does not include individuals with low educational levels, despite the fact that they represent the majority of older adults in our country. Therefore, it is crucial to encourage and support research incorporating more diverse populations.”

The study, “The soundtrack of memory: the effect of music on emotional memory in Alzheimer’s disease and older adults,” was authored by Julieta Moltrasio and Wanda Rubinstein.