Neural Basis of Long-term Musical Memory in Cognitively Impaired Older Persons

Journal

Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders

Year

2020

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether exposure to long-known music would evoke more extensive activation of brain regions minimally affected by Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology and outside traditional memory networks using a functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm involving listening to long-known and recently-learned music in older adults with cognitive impairment to provide insight into mechanisms of long-term musical memory preservation in cognitively impaired older persons. METHODS: Seventeen subjects with a diagnosis of mild AD or mild cognitive impairment were recruited for this study. Subjects were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed a music listening task, which included short clips of personally selected music from the patient's past and newly-composed music heard for the first time 60 minutes before scanning. From this task, we obtained group-level maps comparing brain areas associated with long-known and recently-heard music in all subjects. RESULTS: Exposure to long-known music preferentially activated brain regions including the medial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, anterior insula, basal ganglia, hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum relative to recently-heard music. These areas are involved in autobiographical memory and associated emotional responses. In addition, they are minimally affected by early stage AD pathology, thus providing a neural basis for long-known musical memory survival. CONCLUSIONS: Long-known music activates a bilateral network of prefrontal, emotional, motor, auditory, and subcortical regions (cerebellum, putamen, limbic structures). This extensive activation, relative to recently-heard music, may offer structural and functional clues as to why long-term musical memory appears to be relatively preserved among cognitively impaired older persons.

Music and Health Institute Terms

Alzheimer's and Related Dementias; Cognitive Abilities; Elderly; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI); Memory; Music and Cognition; Music Cognition; Music Listening; Neurodegenerative Disorders

Indexed Terms

Elderly; Alzheimer Disease; Auditory Perception; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cognitive Dysfunction; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Memory, Episodic

Study Type

Quasi-Experimental Study; Quantitative Methods

PubMed ID

32384286

Document Type

Article

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