Music and Memory

Music and Memory

Elderly people suffering from dementia were said to have better reasoning about their backgrounds and personal history when there was music playing in the clinical area than in silence, during an experiment conducted by Elizabeth Valentine, a psychologist at the University of London and co-author of new research on music and memory. Increasingly, music is accompanying traditional medical therapies to help people heal faster. Experts say music has the power to calm and to energize the spirit. The British researchers conducted a test on 23 people (ages 68 to 90) with mild dementia. The test was done with different sounds playing in the background. While asking the questions, the researchers either played: a familiar tune ( Winter, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons), novel music ( Hook, by Fitkin), or pre-recorded cafeteria noise - or asked the questions in stillness. Over four weeks, each person was tested in all four situations.

The participants answered more questions correctly with sound in the background rather than in silence, and they scored even better when music was playing. “Whether the music was familiar or new did not seem to matter. The music probably aroused the participants and helped them focus,” the researchers said.