By: Kamilly Guajardo, Romina Valdivia and Yossuabel Vargas. Workshop teachers: Tito Castillo and Grace Zamorano. Article prepared in collaboration with the Rancagua Girls’ High School and the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences of the University of Valparaíso (CINV).
The progressive increase in the proportion and number of older adults worldwide poses unprecedented challenges in terms of how to promote healthy aging. Once we reach adulthood, as the years go by, the brain experiences a deterioration that evolves slowly and progressively, generating consequences at both cognitive and emotional levels and, sometimes, in the ability to control movement, due to the death of neurons that form part of the grey matter of our brain, decreasing its volume or atrophying it. However, not everything is so bad since, even at advanced ages, cognitive reserve, a quality that allows the brain to reduce the effects of its deterioration naturally associated with aging, gives the privileged members of this age group a performance equivalent to that of a person who is not going through this process.
It is known that cognitive reserve can be cultivated throughout life, for example, through physical activity, good nutrition and, above all, relatively demanding cognitive activity, such as thinking focused on continuous problem solving or learning new languages. Additionally, it is known that musical practice favors cognitive reserve. In this context, perhaps many of you are asking the following question: Could proximity to music provide any benefit to older adults? The same reasonable doubt motivated a team of scientists from Swedish and German universities, led by Damien Marie from the University of Geneva, to evaluate the effects of musical interventions on the variation in gray matter volume in healthy older adults, especially in relation to auditory working memory (WM) performance, reporting relevant progress of the study in March 2023, whose findings were evident in its initial stages.
The experts worked under the hypothesis that musical practice may be a protective factor, favoring the preservation of working memory against cognitive decline and could provide additional resources that help mitigate the loss in the performance of this type of memory. Within this framework, they also proposed that the most notable effects at the level of brain plasticity (that is, the capacity of this organ to change thanks to experience) favor more those who dedicate themselves to playing a musical instrument compared to those who focus on the passive appreciation of music.
To test their hypothesis, they worked with 132 retired, healthy older adults who did not rely on hearing aids and, very importantly, who had not had any kind of musical training for more than 6 months at any time in their lives. They were divided into two groups: one that had musical training, specifically piano lessons, and a second group that functioned as an active control, who were taught musical culture avoiding any kind of instrumental practice.
Both groups underwent different tests, the first of which consisted of a tonal working memory assessment, carried out during MRI sessions, to collect information regarding brain activity associated with the ability to hear a pattern of tones and hold it in mind, and then assess whether they match a subsequent pattern. Specifically, participants were made to listen to an initial pattern of tones A, B and C and, subsequently, they were presented with the same tones that could or could not be in a different order. Finally, the volunteers had to report whether the patterns matched.
Verbal working memory was also assessed using an item from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, where the examiner read digits in ascending order and the participant had to repeat them in reverse, for example, if they heard the sequence 6-2-9, then they had to say 9-2-6.
The results showed an increase in grey matter volume in both groups after six months of musical interventions in the left caudate nucleus, which is related to goal-directed behaviour. There was also an increase in grey matter in the cerebellum, an area of the brain classically associated with motor functions but also with other skills, since when this structure is injured, verbal and spatial working memory, executive functions and language, among others, are affected. In this context, participants in whom the increase in grey matter volume occurred in both hemispheres of the cerebellum showed improvement in tonal working memory, a situation that did not occur in those whose volume increase occurred in only one cerebellar hemisphere, maintaining the initial performance in working memory.
In our work we are always integrating the movements we make with what we perceive through the senses, and one of the brain structures associated with this integration is the right Rolandic operculum, an area that also increased its volume as a result of musical interventions, a change that researchers associated with the stimulation of the audio/motor coupling that occurs between the perception of music and covert vocal production, when passively listening to music or playing an instrument.
A notable difference between the two groups of participants was in the right primary auditory area, as those who practiced piano maintained this region stable, while the other group showed a significant decrease in grey matter volume. This brain region is very important, because it is where cortical sound processing begins, meaning that thanks to this structure we can live the daily experience of hearing and identifying through this way what surrounds us, such as the crash of a car, the song of birds or the words of a loved one.
Considering the characteristics of the participants, the scientists studied the progress of natural brain atrophy associated with aging, and in 6 months a decrease of 0.17% of the global gray matter was calculated. It is important to highlight that, under these conditions, both groups increased the volume of gray matter in various brain regions by listening to or making music with a musical instrument, and that these practices were also associated with better performance in verbal working memory tasks, thus showing how learning in this artistic discipline enhances functions involved in abstract thinking. However, the fact that the primary auditory cortex is preserved only in those who learn and practice music with an instrument activates an important warning signal, since, if that region deteriorates, possibly, the benefits obtained only by listening to music may also be lost, so doing both activities may be more beneficial in the long term.
These types of studies are essential, as they contribute to developing public policies that benefit older adults. Taking into account the results presented, it is evident that both groups benefited from musical interventions, thanks to which the progress of natural and global brain atrophy associated with aging was slowed. In this sense, it would be important that among the activities that municipalities devise for this age group, they consider the implementation of musical appreciation workshops that are complemented by the activity of learning to play an instrument, as a protective measure that extends the period in which older adults can have a good quality of life, not only for themselves, but also for their families.
Finally, in the educational context, the way in which students will be trained in the musical arts must also be reconsidered, because in secondary education the subject of music is an elective subject and once it is chosen it cannot be taken again, a situation that is very similar to what happens with the subject of physical education. Both subjects are valuable opportunities to develop in students a good cognitive reserve that will allow them to experience healthy aging in the future, which is why they have a high preventive value. Another basis for rethinking educational policies in this area is that musical learning involves brain regions that are associated with higher cognitive functions, such as executive functions and language, generating conditions that can favor the acquisition of skills in other disciplines. It is necessary for the Ministry of Education to make decisions based on evidence to innovate and implement a strategy that integrates musical subjects into the lives of students, and optimize their current and future quality of life.
Source: Damien Marie, Cécile AH Müller, Eckart Altenmüller, Dimitri Van De Ville, Kristin Jünemann, Daniel S. Scholz, Tillmann HC Krüger, Florian Worschech, Matthias Kliegel, Christopher Sinke, Clara E. James. Music interventions in 132 healthy older adults enhance cerebellar grey matter and auditory working memory, despite general brain atrophy, Neuroimage Reports, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2023.
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