How music training enhances working memory: a cerebrocerebellar blending mechanism that can lead equally to scientific discovery and therapeutic efficacy in neurological disorders

Music Intervention for older adults: Evidence Map of Systematic Reviews

BACKGROUND

With the increasing aging population, the health problems of the elderly have received increasing attention. As a non-pharmacological interventions, music intervention has been widely used in clinical practice to improve the physical and mental health of the elderly. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of existing systematic reviews on the health effects of music interventions for older adults in clinical practice.

METHODS

The study utilized the evidence map methodology, which involved identifying all relevant systematic reviews, meta-analysis from 7 electronic databases from their inception to November 2022. The studies were analyzed using AMSTAR 2.

RESULTS

The researchers identified 67 studies, with the majority published in the past 5 years. The effects of music interventions were categorized into 4 groups of health outcomes: positive (58 results), potentially positive (4 results), inconclusive (2 results), and no effect (3 results). The health outcomes were further classified into 5 groups: psychological well-being, cognitive functioning, physiological responses, quality of life, and overall well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

The study revealed that music interventions for older adults can have positive or potentially positive effects on health outcomes, encompassing psychological well-being, cognitive functioning, physiological responses, quality of life, and overall well-being. However, some studies yielded inconclusive or no effect. The study offers valuable insights for healthcare professionals and serves as a visual resource to access evidence-based information on the use of music interventions in promoting health and addressing various conditions in older adults.

The cerebellum-driven social basis of mathematics: implications for one-on-one tutoring of children with mathematics learning disabilities

The purpose of this article is to argue that the patterns of sequence control over kinematics (movements) and dynamics (forces) which evolved in phonological processing in inner speech during the evolution of the social-cognitive capacities behind stone-tool making that led to the emergence of Homo sapiens are homologous to the social cerebellum's capacity to learn patterns of sequence within language that we refer to as mathematics. It is argued that this evolution (1) selected toward a social cognitive cerebellum which arose from the arduous, repetitive precision patterns of knapping (stone shaping) and (2) that over a period of a million-plus years was selected from mentalizing toward the kinematics and dynamics as observed and modeled in Theory of Mind (ToM) of more experienced stone knappers. It is concluded that components of this socially-induced autobiographical knowledge, namely, (1) segmenting events, (2) sequencing events, and (3) sequencing event clusters, all at various levels of abstraction, can inform optimum approaches to one-on-one tutoring of children with mathematical learning disabilities.

The prominent role of the cerebellum in the social learning of the phonological loop in working memory: How language was adaptively built from cerebellar inner speech required during stone-tool making

Based on advances in cerebellum research as to its cognitive, social, and language contributions to working memory, the purpose of this article is to describe new support for the prominent involvement of cerebellar internal models in the adaptive selection of language. Within this context it has been proposed that (1) cerebellar internal models of inner speech during stone-tool making accelerated the adaptive evolution of new cause-and-effect sequences of precision stone-tool knapping requirements, and (2) that these evolving cerebellar internal models coded (i.e., learned in corticonuclear microcomplexes) such cause-and-effect sequences as phonological counterparts and, these, when sent to the cerebral cortex, became new phonological working memory. This article describes newer supportive research findings on (1) the cerebellum's role in silent speech in working memory, and (2) recent findings on genetic aspects (FOXP2) of the role of silent speech in language evolution. It is concluded that within overall cerebro-cerebellar evolution, without the evolution of cerebellar coding of stone-tool making sequences of primitive working memory (beginning approximately 1.7 million years ago) language would not have evolved in the subsequent evolution of Homo sapiens.

Effects of Visual and Aural Presentation Styles and Rhythm on Working Memory as Measured by Monosyllabic Sequential Digit Recall

Although information is frequently paired with music to enhance recall, there is a lack of basic research investigating how aspects of recorded music, as well as how it is presented, facilitate working memory. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of visual and aural presentation styles, rhythm, and participant major on working memory as measured by sequential monosyllabic digit recall performance. We isolated visual and aural presentation styles and rhythm conditions during six different treatment stimuli presented on a computer screen in the study: (a) Visual Rhythm; (b) Visual No Rhythm; (c) Aural Rhythm; (d) Aural No Rhythm; (e) Visual + Aural Rhythm; (f) Visual + Aural No Rhythm. Participants' (N = 60; 30 nonmusic majors and 30 music majors) task was to immediately recall the information paired with music within each condition. Analyses of variance indicated a significant difference between the visual and visual + aural presentation style conditions with the visual + aural condition having more accurate recall. While descriptive data indicated that rhythm tended to facilitate recall, there was no significant difference between rhythm and no rhythm conditions. Nonmusic major participants tended to have slightly more accurate recall than music major participants, although this difference was not significant. Participants tended to have higher recall accuracy during primacy and recency serial positions. As participants had most accurate recall during the visual + aural presentation style conditions, it seems that the multi-sensory presentation modes can be effective for teaching information to be immediately recalled as long as they do not contain too much information and overload the limited storage capacity of working memory. Implications for clinical practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided.

How Prediction Based on Sequence Detection in the Cerebellum Led to the Origins of Stone Tools, Language, and Culture and, Thereby, to the Rise of Homo sapiens

This article extends Leiner et al.'s watershed position that cerebellar mechanisms played prominent roles in the evolution of the manipulation and refinement of ideas and language. First it is shown how cerebellar mechanism of sequence-detection may lead to the foundational learning of a predictive working memory in the infant. Second, it is argued how this same cerebellar mechanism may have led to the adaptive selection toward the progressively predictive phonological loop in the evolution of working memory of pre-humans. Within these contexts, cerebellar sequence detection is then applied to an analysis of leading anthropologists Stout and Hecht's cerebral cortex-based explanation of the evolution of culture and language through the repetitious rigors of stone-tool knapping. It is argued that Stout and Hecht's focus on the roles of areas of the brain's cerebral cortex is seriously lacking, because it can be readily shown that cerebellar sequence detection importantly (perhaps predominantly) provides more fundamental explanations for the origins of culture and language. It is shown that the cerebellum does this in the following ways: (1) through prediction-enhancing silent speech in working memory, (2) through prediction in observational learning, and (3) through prediction leading to accuracy in stone-tool knapping. It is concluded, in agreement with Leiner et al. that the more recently proposed mechanism of cerebellar sequence-detection has played a prominent role in the evolution of culture, language, and stone-tool technology, the earmarks of Homo sapiens. It is further concluded that through these same mechanisms the cerebellum continues to play a prominent role in the relentless advancement of culture.

Effects of Visual and Auditory Presentation Styles and Musical Elements on Working Memory as Measured by Monosyllabic Sequential Digit Recall

Information is often paired with music to facilitate memory and learning. However, there is a lack of basic research investigating how visual and auditory presentation styles and musical elements might facilitate recall. The purpose of this study is to isolate and determine the effects of visual and auditory presentation styles and musical elements on working memory as measured by sequential monosyllabic digit recall performance. Recall was tested on 60 undergraduate university students during six different conditions: (a) Visual + Auditory Chant, (b) Visual + Auditory Melody, (c) Visual + Auditory Speech, (d) Auditory Chant, (e) Auditory Melody, and (f) Auditory Speech. There was a significant interaction between presentation style and musical element conditions. There were significant differences between auditory and visual + auditory conditions in the melody and speech conditions but not in the chant condition. In all cases, the auditory condition had more accurate recall than the visual + auditory condition, with recall differences largest during the speech condition. There was no significant difference between chant and melody but significant differences between chant and speech and melody and speech in the visual + auditory condition. In the auditory condition, recall accuracy was lower for speech than for melody or chant. There was no significant difference between chant and melody, chant and speech, or melody and speech in the visual + auditory condition. Congruent with existing research, the addition of visual input likely overloaded working memory resulting in worse recall. Implications for clinical practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Changes in Brain Activation Associated with Spontaneous Improvization and Figural Creativity After Design-Thinking-Based Training: A Longitudinal fMRI Study

Creativity is widely recognized as an essential skill for entrepreneurial success and adaptation to daily-life demands. However, we know little about the neural changes associated with creative capacity enhancement. For the first time, using a prospective, randomized control design, we examined longitudinal changes in brain activity associated with participating in a five-week design-thinking-based Creative Capacity Building Program (CCBP), when compared with Language Capacity Building Program (LCBP). Creativity, an elusive and multifaceted construct, is loosely defined as an ability to produce useful/appropriate and novel outcomes. Here, we focus on one of the facets of creative thinking-spontaneous improvization. Participants were assessed pre- and post-intervention for spontaneous improvization skills using a game-like figural Pictionary-based fMRI task. Whole-brain group-by-time interaction revealed reduced task-related activity in CCBP participants (compared with LCBP participants) after training in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior/paracingulate gyrus, supplementary motor area, and parietal regions. Further, greater cerebellar-cerebral connectivity was observed in CCBP participants at post-intervention when compared with LCBP participants. In sum, our results suggest that improvization-based creative capacity enhancement is associated with reduced engagement of executive functioning regions and increased involvement of spontaneous implicit processing.

Children's early bilingualism and musical training influence prosodic discrimination of sentences in an unknown language

This study investigated whether early bilingualism and early musical training positively influence the ability to discriminate between prosodic patterns corresponding to different syntactic structures in otherwise phonetically identical sentences in an unknown language. In a same-different discrimination task, participants (N = 108) divided into four groups (monolingual non-musicians, monolingual musicians, bilingual non-musicians, and bilingual musicians) listened to pairs of short sentences in a language unknown to them (French). In discriminating phonetically identical but prosodically different sentences, musicians, bilinguals, and bilingual musicians outperformed the controls. However, there was no interaction between bilingualism and musical training to suggest an additive effect. These results underscore the significant role of both types of experience in enhancing the listeners' sensitivity to prosodic information.

The Origin of Mathematics and Number Sense in the Cerebellum: with Implications for Finger Counting and Dyscalculia

Background

Mathematicians and scientists have struggled to adequately describe the ultimate foundations of mathematics. Nobel laureates Albert Einstein and Eugene Wigner were perplexed by this issue, with Wigner concluding that the workability of mathematics in the real world is a mystery we cannot explain. In response to this classic enigma, the major purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical model of the ultimate origin of mathematics and “number sense” (as defined by S. Dehaene) that is proposed to involve the learning of inverse dynamics models through the collaboration of the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex (but prominently cerebellum-driven). This model is based upon (1) the modern definition of mathematics as the “science of patterns,” (2) cerebellar sequence (pattern) detection, and (3) findings that the manipulation of numbers is automated in the cerebellum. This cerebro-cerebellar approach does not necessarily conflict with mathematics or number sense models that focus on brain functions associated with especially the intraparietal sulcus region of the cerebral cortex. A direct corollary purpose of this article is to offer a cerebellar inner speech explanation for difficulty in developing “number sense” in developmental dyscalculia.

Results

It is argued that during infancy the cerebellum learns (1) a first tier of internal models for a primitive physics that constitutes the foundations of visual-spatial working memory, and (2) a second (and more abstract) tier of internal models based on (1) that learns “number” and relationships among dimensions across the primitive physics of the first tier. Within this context it is further argued that difficulty in the early development of the second tier of abstraction (and “number sense”) is based on the more demanding attentional requirements imposed on cerebellar inner speech executive control during the learning of cerebellar inverse dynamics models. Finally, it is argued that finger counting improves (does not originate) “number sense” by extending focus of attention in executive control of silent cerebellar inner speech.

Discussion

It is suggested that (1) the origin of mathematics has historically been an enigma only because it is learned below the level of conscious awareness in cerebellar internal models, (2) understandings of the development of “number sense” and developmental dyscalculia can be advanced by first understanding the ultimate foundations of number and mathematics do not simply originate in the cerebral cortex, but rather in cerebro-cerebellar collaboration (predominately driven by the cerebellum).

Conclusion

It is concluded that difficulty with “number sense” results from the extended demands on executive control in learning inverse dynamics models associated with cerebellar inner speech related to the second tier of abstraction (numbers) of the infant’s primitive physics.

Analyze the beta waves of electroencephalogram signals from young musicians and non-musicians in major scale working memory task

Electroencephalograms can record wave variations in any brain activity. Beta waves are produced when an external stimulus induces logical thinking, computation, and reasoning during consciousness. This work uses the beta wave of major scale working memory N-back tasks to analyze the differences between young musicians and non-musicians. After the feature analysis uses signal filtering, Hilbert-Huang transformation, and feature extraction methods to identify differences, k-means clustering algorithm are used to group them into different clusters. The results of feature analysis showed that beta waves significantly differ between young musicians and non-musicians from the low memory load of working memory task.

[Music, pulse, heart and sport]

Music, with its various elements, such as rhythm, sound and melody had the unique ability even in prehistoric, ancient and medieval times to have a special fascination for humans. Nowadays, it is impossible to eliminate music from our daily lives. We are accompanied by music in shopping arcades, on the radio, during sport or leisure time activities and in wellness therapy. Ritualized drumming was used in the medical sense to drive away evil spirits or to undergo holy enlightenment. Today we experience the varied effects of music on all sensory organs and we utilize its impact on cardiovascular and neurological rehabilitation, during invasive cardiovascular procedures or during physical activities, such as training or work. The results of recent studies showed positive effects of music on heart rate and in therapeutic treatment (e. g. music therapy). This article pursues the impact of music on the body and the heart and takes sports medical aspects from the past and the present into consideration; however, not all forms of music and not all types of musical activity are equally suitable and are dependent on the type of intervention, the sports activity or form of movement and also on the underlying disease. This article discusses the influence of music on the body, pulse, on the heart and soul in the past and the present day.

The prominent role of the cerebellum in the learning, origin and advancement of culture

BACKGROUND

Vandervert described how, in collaboration with the cerebral cortex, unconscious learning of cerebellar internal models leads to enhanced executive control in working memory in expert music performance and in scientific discovery. Following Vandervert's arguments, it is proposed that since music performance and scientific discovery, two pillars of cultural learning and advancement, are learned through in cerebellar internal models, it is reasonable that additional if not all components of culture may be learned in the same way. Within this perspective strong evidence is presented that argues that the learning, maintenance, and advancement of culture are accomplished primarily by recently-evolved (the last million or so years) motor/cognitive functions of the cerebellum and not primarily by the cerebral cortex as previously assumed. It is suggested that the unconscious cerebellar mechanism behind the origin and learning of culture greatly expands Ito's conception of the cerebellum as "a brain for an implicit self."

RESULTS

Through the mechanism of predictive sequence detection in cerebellar internal models related to the body, other persons, or the environment, it is shown how individuals can unconsciously learn the elements of culture and yet, at the same time, be in social sync with other members of culture. Further, this predictive, cerebellar mechanism of socialization toward the norms of culture is hypothesized to be diminished among children who experience excessive television viewing, which results in lower grades, poor socialization, and diminished executive control.

CONCLUSION

It is concluded that the essential components of culture are learned and sustained not by the cerebral cortex alone as many traditionally believe, but are learned through repetitious improvements in prediction and control by internal models in the cerebellum. From this perspective, the following new explanations of culture are discussed: (1) how culture can be learned unconsciously but yet be socially in sync with others, (2) how the recent evolutionary expansion of the cerebellum was involved in the co-evolution of earliest stone tools and language-leading to the cerebellum-driven origin of culture, (3) how cerebellar internal models are blended to produce the creative, forward advances in culture, (4) how the blending of cerebellar internal models led to human, multi-component, infinitely partitionable and communicable working memory, (5) how excessive television viewing may represent a cultural shift that diminishes the observational learning of internal models of the behavior of others and thus may result in a mild, parallel version of Schmahmann's cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome.