Playing Music Tied to Better Cognition in Later Life

TOPLINE:

Playing a musical instrument is associated with better working memory and executive function, and singing in a group is associated with better executive function, new study results showed.

METHODOLOGY:

• This was a nested study within PROTECT-UK, a longitudinal cohort study designed to examine aging and brain health. Participants completed three tests for working memory and one for executive function up to three times a year between 2019 and 2022.
• A group of 1107 participants (83% female; mean age 68 years) completed the Edinburgh Lifetime Musical Experience Questionnaire, which posed questions about playing musical instruments, singing, listening to music, and self-reported musical ability.
• Participants were split into two groups, namely, those who reported singing or playing a musical instrument (89%) or not (11%), and compared.

TAKEAWAY:

• Participants who reported playing a musical instrument performed significantly better on working memory (P < .0001) and executive function tasks (P < .0005) than those who didn’t play an instrument.
• The effect on working memory was the most heightened in those who reported playing keyboard (P < .0001), while those who played a woodwind instrument (P < .04) and/or sang (P < .014) showed significantly better performance on the executive function task.
• Nearly 90% of the sample had experience playing a musical instrument, with 44% playing currently. The majority of participants reported playing either one (28%) or two (23%) instruments.

IN PRACTICE:

Public health interventions might promote dementia risk reduction by incorporating music into programming, the authors concluded. “There is considerable evidence for the benefit of music group activities for individuals with dementia, and this approach could be extended as part of a health aging package for healthy older adults to enable them to proactively reduce their risk and to promote brain health,” they wrote.

SOURCE:

Gaia Vetere, MD, of the University of Exeter in Exeter, England, led the study, which was published online on January 28, 2024, in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

LIMITATIONS:

The data were self-reported so may be subject to bias, and the size of the comparison group (those who didn’t play an instrument or sing) was much smaller.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. Disclosures were noted in the original article.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.