Music and Memory
Two new studies offer a simple conclusion. Music can improve the learning of new information and positively influence existing memories. The finding opens the way to developing a methodology for music therapy for conditions such as PTSD, depression, and dementia.
Trying to understand how our brain is connected to music is more than a question of taste or pleasure. It is about the mechanism of neurohormones synthesis and the formation of neural connections against the background of these processes.
How are music and memory related?
Music has been an integral part of human civilization since prehistoric times. Specific melodies directly influence our emotions and memories. Most likely, each of us has a specific song/genre associated with a specific period of life. Here we can discuss for a long time, from memories of the period of study, to music in headphones on the way home or a personal car playlist.
Two recently published studies led by Yiren Ren, a graduate student in the School of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, examined the concept of music as teaching aid and her ability transform old memories.
One paper looks at how music changes the way your memory works when you're first forming new memories – learning. But another study focuses on the memories we already have, and asks whether we can change the emotions associated with those memories with music.
Thackeray Brown, cognitive neuroscientist, director of the Memory Lab
Can music change existing memories?
Based on the theory that memories are updated when recalled, the researchers played emotional music during the memory-recall process to see if music could change their emotional content. This seems pretty bold given that the brain stores about three copies of each of our memories.
Forty-four healthy adults (24 of whom were women) in their early 20s completed a three-day episodic memory task with separate encoding, recall, and retrieval phases. Episodic memory is the conscious recollection of previous experiences along with their context, including time, place, and associated emotions. But they can be adjusted, much like how people experience a placebo.
We wanted to start with a random group of people and see if music could influence the emotional level of their memories.
Yiren Ren, author of the study.
Research procedure
On the first day, participants were exposed to 15 neutral and five emotional short fictional stories, after which they were asked to imagine themselves in each story as if it had happened to them personally. Participants then typed out each situation as they remembered it, using as much detail as possible, and rated their feelings/emotions on a nine-point scale. The goal was to form memories similar to those one might evoke from watching a movie or reading a book.
On the second day, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans while 10 words were displayed at random positions on a screen. Four of the words were key words from the stories they had heard and retold. The remaining six words were emotional “baits”—three positive and three negative—that did not appear in the stories.
Participants had to read 10 words on a screen, identify which story the key words belonged to, recall the story, and then select all the words on the screen that they thought best matched their impressions of the story. While participants were performing the word selection task, a positive melody, a sad melody, or only silence played in the background.
Delving into emotions, memory and sound
On the third day, participants completed two memory tests for 15 neutral stories. The first test measured their ability to recall the story, similar to what they did on day one, when they were asked to retell the story on their own behalf. The second test was a forced-choice word recognition task. One at a time and in random order, participants were shown key words and emotionally charged lure words from the 15 stories and asked whether the words had appeared on day one. To make the task more challenging, the researchers included new words that had not appeared on days one or two.
The researchers found that emotional music, especially positive music played in the background during memory reactivation, could change the emotional tone of difficult memories. Participants chose negative lures less often when the background music was positive, compared to when it was negative or absent.
This sheds light on the plasticity of memory in response to music and the important role music can play in changing our existing memories.
Yiren Ren, author of the study
We can't change a bad event or memory of it by simply playing happy music when it was formed. The point of the study is that listening to positive music while recalling an old memory can change it. Like some kind of re-awareness, like with the same CBT.
And maybe we can help people change their feelings and change the emotional tone associated with certain memories.
Thackeray Brown, cognitive neuroscientist, director of the Memory Lab
Using Music to Enhance Learning
There are some facts about whether listening to music while studying helps or hinders the retention of new information. If it helps, then can we say that some melodies are better/worse than others. This question was raised in the second study.
We wanted to explore the potential of music as a mnemonic device to help us remember information more easily.
Yiren Ren, author of the study.
The researchers asked 48 participants (25 of them women) aged 18 to 24 to memorise sequences of abstract shapes while listening to music with either a familiar pitch, rhythm and melody or an atonal and non-rhythmic melody.
Listening to familiar, regularly structured and highly predictable music enabled participants to learn and recall sequences of shapes faster, while irregular music significantly impaired memory encoding. Scientists attribute faster learning and recall to the brain's ability to create a “scaffold” or “framework” for new information through music. And on it, a pure consciousness.
Depending on its recognizability and structure, music can help or hinder our memory.
Yiren Ren, author of the study.
Prospects for understanding the mechanisms by which music may influence memory
The results of the study could be used as a basis for music therapy for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, as well as for rehabilitation strategies for the aging population, especially those suffering from dementia.
These studies are related because both explore the use of music in modulating memory, offering insights for both everyday and clinical use. I am excited to combine my long-standing love of music with my interest in how human memory works, and I think the next phase of the research will provide valuable evidence to support music therapy in the areas of mental health and cognitive support, for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Yiren Ren, author of the study.
Read more about the features of memory, consciousness, and brain function in general in materials of the telegram channel. Subscribe to stay up to date with new articles!
