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Studies have reported an enhancing effect of music on the performance of cognitive tasks, an improvement many attribute to an increase in the attention of participants while listening to music. Music therapy programs have been instituted for elderly patients with dementia. However, few systematic studies on the effects of music on cognition in the elderly have been conducted in a laboratory setting. In this experiment, cognitively normal older adults were exposed to both a music and a no music condition, each lasting ten minutes. After each condition, they performed digit span and coding tasks which require attention for maximal performance. Results collected to date on six controls did not reach significance (digit span, p = .463; coding, p = .637), suggesting that an alternative mechanism may mediate the enhancing effects of music. Sample size, however, was small, and further data will be collected in this population as well as in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment to adequately test a potential enhancing effect of music.
Huge interest in the positive effects of music began with the so-called Mozart effect published in a study by Rauscher et al. (1993) which demonstrated that exposure to a Mozart piano piece significantly increased college students’ scores on spatial intelligence measures. Studies of elderly patients with dementia have reported positive effects of music, but relied on observational data, were poorly controlled, and failed to include cognitively normal older adults as a comparison group. A few recent controlled experiments have demonstrated changes in cognitive performance following exposure to music in both patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cognitively normal older controls. Researchers have proposed that these effects may be due to changes in attention and anxiety levels. In this ongoing study, we plan to provide further support for the idea that music has a positive effect on attention in cognitively normal older adults, and to determine if the benefits extend to patients with mild cognitive impairment or AD.
Six cognitively normal adults over the age of 50 (mean age= 63, SD= 10.3) were recruited for participation at the Wesley Woods Health Center. Volunteers were screened for eligibility and informed consent was obtained.
A within subject, repeated measures design was used where subjects either sat in silence or listened to music (Vivaldi, “Spring” movement of Four Seasons) for 10 minutes with headphones. Order of condition was randomly assigned.
After each condition, subjects completed the attentional component of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) consisting of digit span and coding subtests. Order of the two test versions A and B was randomly assigned.
In between the two test conditions, the Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) was administered. The first attentional component of this test was not administered.
After the second administration of the attentional tasks, participants completed a brief questionnaire detailing their current and past experiences with music.
Participants were debriefed
1. Digit Span scores did not differ significantly between the No Music and Music conditions (p = 0.4634).
2. Coding scores did not differ significantly between the No Music and Music conditions (0.6373).
3. No practice effect was observed for Digit Span or Coding scores.
4. Normal performance on the DRS was observed in the controls
Conclusions and Future Studies:
Music did not improve performance of cognitively normal older adults on attentional tasks.
Enhancing effects of music may be mediated by some mechanism other than attention.
However, sample size was small and statistical power was low. Therefore, compelling conclusions cannot be made at this time.
Sample size will be increased to include approximately 20 cognitively normal older adults.
Equivalent group sizes of Alzheimer’s and Mild Cognitive Impairment patients will be incorporated into study design to compare the potential enhancing effect of music.
This work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute under Grant No. 52005873 and by the Student Inquiry Research Experience award from the Office of Undergraduate Studies, Emory College.
Irish M; Cunningham CJ; Walsh JB; Coakley D; Lawlor BA; Robertson IH; Coen RF. (2006). Investigating the enhancing effect of music on autobiographical memory in mild Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders , 22, 108- 120.
Lord TR; Garner JE. (1993). Effects of music on Alzheimer’s patients. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 451-455.
Thompson RG; Moulin CJA; Hayre S; Jones RW. (2005). Music enhances category fluency in healthy older adults and Alzheimer’s disease patients. Experimental Aging Research , 31, 91- 99.
Rauscher, FH; Shaw, GL; Ky, KN. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365, 611.
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