People Who Listen To This Type Of Music Have Stronger Brains, According To Research
Who knew that all of that music from your childhood could actually benefit you?
Miljan Zivkovic | Shutterstock If you’ve ever listened to a song that was from an earlier time in your life and instantly been transported back to where you would have been when listening to it previously, then you know the power of nostalgic music. One group of researchers discovered that nostalgic music has even more power than we could have imagined.
Research has found that listening to nostalgic music can make your brain stronger.
In a study published in the journal Human Brain Mapping, a group of researchers shared the results of their work to see just what effect nostalgic music could have on the human brain. Their findings were surprising and could have interesting implications for Alzheimer’s patients.
Researchers noted, “With the ultimate goal of understanding how nostalgia-evoking music may help retrieve autobiographical memories in individuals with cognitive impairment, we first sought to understand the neural underpinnings of these processes in healthy younger and older adults.”
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To do this, they took 29 young adults, between 18 and 35, and 28 older adults, 60 and over, through a series of MRI tests while listening to music. According to Eric W. Dolan, who reported on the study for PsyPost, researchers had each participant choose six songs that were personally nostalgic to them.
They then identified a group of control songs — some of which were “familiar” and some that were not — that all had similar musical properties so the participants' brain activity could be compared when listening to the nostalgic songs, familiar non-nostalgic songs, and unfamiliar songs. This “[ensured] that differences in brain activity could be attributed to nostalgia rather than musical features or familiarity alone,” Dolan said.
Unlike the control songs, the nostalgia songs created quite a bit of activity in participants’ brains.
“Despite all of the differences present in musical choice, nostalgia as evoked by music is associated with a very clear pattern in the brain across individuals and across the lifespan. This pattern involves parts of the brain called the default mode network and the reward network," lead study author Sarah Hennessy explained. "These networks of the brain help us process information about our own life stories, and respond to things that bring us pleasure.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the older and younger groups of adults had different reactions to listening to nostalgic music.
While these findings were true of all study participants, they were stronger for one group than the other.
“Older adults not only reported feeling more positive emotions while listening to music in general, but they also showed stronger brain responses to nostalgic songs than younger adults,” Dolan said. “The findings suggest that older adults may engage more deeply with nostalgic music, possibly reflecting a shift in emotional priorities with age.”
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Hennessy was a bit caught off guard by this information. “We observed that older adults actually had slightly stronger activation in these nostalgia-related regions than younger adults,” she said. “We expected older and younger adults to have similar patterns of activation, but this finding was a bit unexpected.”
Hennessy said there is really no way to explain this difference without further study. However, whatever is causing this difference could be good news.
The study’s findings show that music could help with treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers suggested that their findings regarding the older adults in the study meant they may simply be more prone to retrieving autobiographical memories. This follows information the Alzheimer’s Association has published regarding music as a treatment method for dementia.
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“Studies have shown music may reduce agitation and improve behavioral issues that are common in the middle stages of the disease,” they said. “Even in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, a person may be able to tap a beat or sing lyrics to a song from childhood.”
This information does make music look like an awfully promising therapy for Alzheimer’s patients. Even if there are no remarkable effects on memory, it could improve the quality of life.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.