Normal aging is associated with progressive cognitive decline. But can we train our brain to slow down this process? A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), HES-SO Geneva and EPFL has found that practicing and listening to music can alter cognitive decline in healthy older people by stimulating the production of gray matter. To achieve these results, the researchers followed more than 100 retired people who had never practiced music before. They enrolled in a six-month piano and music training. These results open new perspectives for the support of healthy aging. are reported in Neuroimaging: Reports.
Throughout our lives, our brain remodels itself. The morphology and connections of the brain change depending on the environment and experiences, for example, when we learn new skills or overcome the consequences of a stroke. However, as we age, this “brain plasticity” decreases. The brain also loses gray matter, where our precious neurons are located. This is known as ”cerebral atrophy”.
Little by little, cognitive deterioration appears. Working memory, at the center of many cognitive processes, is one of the cognitive functions that suffers the most. Working memory is defined as the process of briefly retaining and manipulating information to achieve a goal, such as remembering a phone number long enough to write it down or translating a sentence from a foreign language.
A study led by UNIGE, HES-SO Geneva and EPFL revealed that musical practice and active listening could prevent working memory impairment. Such activities promoted brain plasticity, were associated with increased gray matter volume. Positive impacts on working memory have also been measured. This study was conducted among 132 healthy retirees 62 to 78 years of age. One of the conditions to participate was that they had not taken music classes for more than six months in their lives.
practicing music vs. listen to music
”We wanted people whose brains did not yet show any trace of plasticity linked to musical learning. In fact, even a brief learning experience in one’s lifetime can leave traces in the brain, which would have skewed 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 Interfacultative Center for Affective Sciences (CISA) of UNIGE, as well as the School of Health Sciences in Geneva.
Participants were randomly assigned to two groups, regardless of their motivation to play an instrument. The second group received active listening lessons, which focused on instrument recognition and analysis of musical properties in a wide range of musical styles. The classes lasted an hour. Participants in both groups were asked to do the task for half an hour a day.
Positive effects in both groups
“After six months, we found common effects for both interventions. Neuroimaging revealed an increase in gray matter in four brain regions involved in high-level cognitive functioning in all the participants, including areas of the cerebellum involved in working memory. Their performance increased by 6% and this result was directly correlated with the plasticity of the cerebellum,” says Clara James, the last author of the study, a private professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of UNIGE and a tenured professor at the the Geneva School of Health Sciences. The scientists also found that the quality of sleep, the number of lessons followed during the course of the intervention, and the amount of daily training had a positive impact on the degree of performance improvement.
However, the researchers also found a difference between the two groups. In the pianists, gray matter volume remained stable in the right primary auditory cortex, a key region for sound processing, while 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 aging in specific regions”, says Damien Marie.
These results show that practicing and listening to music promotes brain plasticity and cognitive reserve. The study authors believe that these playful and accessible interventions should become a major policy priority for healthy ageing. The team’s next step is to test the potential of these interventions in people with mild cognitive impairment, an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia.