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Vetere G, Williams G, Ballard C, Creese B, Hampshire A, Palmer A, Pickering E, Richards M, Brooker H, Corbett A. The relationship between playing musical instruments and cognitive trajectories: Analysis from a UK ageing cohort. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2024; 39:e6061. [PMID: 38281509 DOI: 10.1002/gps.6061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 01/30/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The accumulation of age-associated cognitive deficits can lead to Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and dementia. This is a major public health issue for the modern ageing population, as it impairs health, independence and overall quality of life. Keeping the brain active during life has been associated with an increased cognitive reserve, therefore reducing the risk of cognitive impairment in older age. Previous research has identified a potential relationship between musicality and cognition. OBJECTIVES Explore the relationship between musicality and cognitive function in a large cohort of older adults. METHODS This was a nested study within the PROTECT-UK cohort, which collects longitudinal computerised assessments of cognitive function in adults over 40. Participants were invited to complete the validated Edinburgh Lifetime Musical Experience Questionnaire (ELMEQ) to assess their musical experience and lifetime exposure to music. Linear regression analysis was performed using cognitive data from PROTECT-UK. RESULTS Analysis identified an association between musicality and cognition in this cohort. Playing a musical instrument was associated with significantly better performance in working memory and executive function. Significant associations were also found between singing and executive function, and between overall musical ability and working memory. CONCLUSIONS Our findings confirm previous literature, highlighting the potential value of education and engagement in musical activities throughout life as a means of harnessing cognitive reserve as part of a protective lifestyle for brain health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaia Vetere
- University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Gareth Williams
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Clive Ballard
- University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Byron Creese
- Division of Psychology, Department of Life Sciences, Brunel University, London, UK
| | - Adam Hampshire
- Division of Brain Sciences, & Dementia Research Institute Care Research & Technology Centre, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Abbie Palmer
- University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Ellie Pickering
- University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Megan Richards
- University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | | | - Anne Corbett
- University of Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
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Rouse HJ, Doyle C, Hueluer G, Torres MD, Peterson LJ, Pan X, Dobbs D, Du Y, Conner K, Meng H. Music Engagement and Episodic Memory Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A National Longitudinal Analysis. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2023; 78:1484-1492. [PMID: 37082891 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbad058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to examine associations between music engagement and episodic memory for more than 12 years in a nationally representative sample of middle- and older-aged adults in the United States. METHODS This study is based on a secondary analysis of data from a sample (N = 5,021) of cognitively normal adults from the Health and Retirement Study (2006-2018). Episodic memory was measured by immediate and delayed recall tasks. Music engagement was classified as none, passive (i.e., listening to music), active (i.e., singing and/or playing an instrument), or both (i.e., listening to music and singing or playing an instrument). RESULTS Compared with those with no music engagement, respondents who reported both passive and active engagement performed 0.258 points better at baseline on episodic memory tasks. This group also performed better across time with scores that declined by 0.043 points fewer per study visit. Additionally, compared to those with no music engagement, participants with passive music engagement had scores that declined by 0.023 points fewer per visit. There were no significant differences in performance at baseline for those with passive or active music engagement, or across time for those with active engagement. DISCUSSION The results of this study suggest that engaging in both passive and active music engagement may be superior to engaging with music only passively or actively and that engaging in music both ways may be able to protect against age-related declines in episodic memory. Future research should examine whether community-based music engagement interventions can affect this trajectory of decline.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hillary J Rouse
- School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Cassidy Doyle
- School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Gizem Hueluer
- Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Mia D Torres
- School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Lindsay J Peterson
- School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Xi Pan
- Department of Sociology, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, USA
- Department of Geriatrics, Greenville Health System, Greenville, South Carolina, USA
| | - Debra Dobbs
- School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Yan Du
- University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
| | - Kyaien Conner
- Department of Mental Health and Law Policy, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
| | - Hongdao Meng
- School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
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Spiech C, Endestad T, Laeng B, Danielsen A, Haghish EF. Beat alignment ability is associated with formal musical training not current music playing. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1034561. [PMID: 36794086 PMCID: PMC9922839 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1034561] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to perceive the beat in music is crucial for both music listeners and players with expert musicians being notably skilled at noticing fine deviations in the beat. However, it is unclear whether this beat perception ability is enhanced in trained musicians who continue to practice relative to musicians who no longer play. Thus, we investigated this by comparing active musicians', inactive musicians', and nonmusicians' beat alignment ability scores on the Computerized Adaptive Beat Alignment Test (CA-BAT). 97 adults with diverse musical experience participated in the study, reporting their years of formal musical training, number of instruments played, hours of weekly music playing, and hours of weekly music listening, in addition to their demographic information. While initial tests between groups indicated active musicians outperformed inactive musicians and nonmusicians on the CA-BAT, a generalized linear regression analysis showed that there was no significant difference once differences in musical training had been accounted for. To ensure that our results were not impacted by multicollinearity between music-related variables, nonparametric and nonlinear machine learning regressions were employed and confirmed that years of formal musical training was the only significant predictor of beat alignment ability. These results suggest that expertly perceiving fine differences in the beat is not a use-dependent ability that degrades without regular maintenance through practice or musical engagement. Instead, better beat alignment appears to be associated with more musical training regardless of continued use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Connor Spiech
- RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,*Correspondence: Connor Spiech, ✉
| | - Tor Endestad
- RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Bruno Laeng
- RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Anne Danielsen
- RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway,Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - E. F. Haghish
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Böttcher A, Zarucha A, Köbe T, Gaubert M, Höppner A, Altenstein S, Bartels C, Buerger K, Dechent P, Dobisch L, Ewers M, Fliessbach K, Freiesleben SD, Frommann I, Haynes JD, Janowitz D, Kilimann I, Kleineidam L, Laske C, Maier F, Metzger C, Munk MHJ, Perneczky R, Peters O, Priller J, Rauchmann BS, Roy N, Scheffler K, Schneider A, Spottke A, Teipel SJ, Wiltfang J, Wolfsgruber S, Yakupov R, Düzel E, Jessen F, Röske S, Wagner M, Kempermann G, Wirth M. Musical Activity During Life Is Associated With Multi-Domain Cognitive and Brain Benefits in Older Adults. Front Psychol 2022; 13:945709. [PMID: 36092026 PMCID: PMC9454948 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.945709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Regular musical activity as a complex multimodal lifestyle activity is proposed to be protective against age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. This cross-sectional study investigated the association and interplay between musical instrument playing during life, multi-domain cognitive abilities and brain morphology in older adults (OA) from the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE) study. Participants reporting having played a musical instrument across three life periods (n = 70) were compared to controls without a history of musical instrument playing (n = 70), well-matched for reserve proxies of education, intelligence, socioeconomic status and physical activity. Participants with musical activity outperformed controls in global cognition, working memory, executive functions, language, and visuospatial abilities, with no effects seen for learning and memory. The musically active group had greater gray matter volume in the somatosensory area, but did not differ from controls in higher-order frontal, temporal, or hippocampal volumes. However, the association between gray matter volume in distributed frontal-to-temporal regions and cognitive abilities was enhanced in participants with musical activity compared to controls. We show that playing a musical instrument during life relates to better late-life cognitive abilities and greater brain capacities in OA. Musical activity may serve as a multimodal enrichment strategy that could help preserve cognitive and brain health in late life. Longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to support this notion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriana Böttcher
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dresden, Germany
- Section of Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Alexis Zarucha
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dresden, Germany
| | - Theresa Köbe
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dresden, Germany
| | - Malo Gaubert
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dresden, Germany
| | - Angela Höppner
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dresden, Germany
| | - Slawek Altenstein
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Claudia Bartels
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Katharina Buerger
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Munich, Germany
| | - Peter Dechent
- MR-Research in Neurology and Psychiatry, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Laura Dobisch
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Michael Ewers
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Munich, Germany
| | - Klaus Fliessbach
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
- Department for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | | | - Ingo Frommann
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
- Department for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - John Dylan Haynes
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Daniel Janowitz
- Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Ingo Kilimann
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Rostock, Germany
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rostock University Medical Center, Rostock, Germany
| | | | - Christoph Laske
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Tübingen, Germany
- Section for Dementia Research, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Franziska Maier
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Coraline Metzger
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Matthias H. J. Munk
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Tübingen, Germany
- Systems Neurophysiology, Department of Biology, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany
| | - Robert Perneczky
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Munich, Germany
- Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology, Munich, Germany
- Ageing Epidemiology Research Unit, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Oliver Peters
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Josef Priller
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Boris-Stephan Rauchmann
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Nina Roy
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
| | - Klaus Scheffler
- Department for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Anja Schneider
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
- Department for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Annika Spottke
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Stefan J. Teipel
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Rostock, Germany
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rostock University Medical Center, Rostock, Germany
| | - Jens Wiltfang
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Göttingen, Germany
- Neurosciences and Signaling Group, Institute of Biomedicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Steffen Wolfsgruber
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
- Department for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Renat Yakupov
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Emrah Düzel
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Frank Jessen
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Sandra Röske
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
| | - Michael Wagner
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany
- Department for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Gerd Kempermann
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dresden, Germany
- Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Miranka Wirth
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dresden, Germany
- *Correspondence: Miranka Wirth,
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