When the brain has forgotten almost everything – what year it is, who the visitor is, even who it is – then there is still the music. Then the 85-year-old, who suffers from dementia, picks up the accordion and plays the old pieces with virtuosity. And the senior citizen with Alzheimer’s sings songs with several verses. “The music often stays until the end,” says geriatric psychiatrist Oliver Peters. The head physician at the Psychiatry Clinic in Frankfurt (Oder) is scientifically accompanying a touching project called “Resonare” for the Charité at the Komische Oper in Berlin, where an attempt is made to use music to build bridges with people whose opportunities are dwindling , forgotten world.
According to Peters, there are two reasons why music can do this: “The old songs are highly over-learned, they were played or sung over and over again.” Music also appeals to emotions, and these are often still accessible.
But music can apparently also help prevent dementia from developing in the first place. This is shown by a current study from the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, for which a team led by dementia researcher Anne Corbett from the University of Exeter measured the brain performance of more than 1,100 older Brits and asked them about their access to music. Anyone who had played an instrument in their life had a better memory and was able to solve complex tasks better than people without musical experience. Instruments such as the accordion and piano, on which two voices are played at the same time, had a stronger effect than wind or string instruments. Singing performed less well. Simply listening to music, however, didn’t help.
Your choice of career also plays a role
The study stands in line with numerous other works. “The findings are confirming that making music is great brain training. And brain training is super important to prevent or delay dementia,” says psychologist Stefan Kölsch, who researches this topic at the University of Bergen. When making music, a lot of things come together: you train perception, attention, memory and have social encounters, says Kölsch, “and all at once.” However, the protective effect of making music has not been conclusively proven; it is simply difficult from a methodological point of view. Social status was not taken into account in British work. However, it is known that children from wealthier families are more likely to learn an instrument and are also better protected against dementia later on because of their often mentally stimulating jobs. This could distort the results.
Nevertheless, it was shown that memory protection goes beyond this coincidental connection. Those people who not only played an instrument at some point, but also continued playing music into old age, benefited particularly greatly in the British study. Does it still help if you only start playing at an older age? Anne Corbett told the BBC that her study didn’t examine that, but she thought it was “very beneficial” too. Just because of reading music. “Reading music is a bit like learning a new language,” says Corbett, “it’s challenging.”