Music-based memory enhancement in Alzheimer's Disease: Promise and limitations

• Published in: Neuropsychologia 2012-12, Vol.50 (14), p.3295-3303
• Main Authors: Simmons-Stern, Nicholas R., Deason, Rebecca G., Brandler, Brian J., Frustace, Bruno S., O'Connor, Maureen K., Ally, Brandon A., Budson, Andrew E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease - complications; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Alzheimer Disease - rehabilitation; Alzheimer's disease; Analysis of Variance; Familiarity; Female; Humans; Male; Memory Disorders - etiology; Memory Disorders - rehabilitation; Mnemonics; Music; Music Therapy - methods; Neuropsychological Tests; Photic Stimulation; Recognition memory; Recognition, Psychology - physiology; Recollection
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.09.019

In a previous study (Simmons-Stern, Budson & Ally, 2010), we found that patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) better recognized visually presented lyrics when the lyrics were also sung rather than spoken at encoding. The present study sought to further investigate the effects of music on memory in patients with AD by making the content of the song lyrics relevant for the daily life of an older adult and by examining how musical encoding alters several different aspects of episodic memory. Patients with AD and healthy older adults studied visually presented novel song lyrics related to instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) that were accompanied by either a sung or a spoken recording. Overall, participants performed better on a memory test of general lyric content for lyrics that were studied sung as compared to spoken. However, on a memory test of specific lyric content, participants performed equally well for sung and spoken lyrics. We interpret these results in terms of a dual-process model of recognition memory such that the general content questions represent a familiarity-based representation that is preferentially sensitive to enhancement via music, while the specific content questions represent a recollection-based representation unaided by musical encoding. Additionally, in a test of basic recognition memory for the audio stimuli, patients with AD demonstrated equal discrimination for sung and spoken stimuli. We propose that the perceptual distinctiveness of musical stimuli enhanced metamemorial awareness in AD patients via a non-selective distinctiveness heuristic, thereby reducing false recognition while at the same time reducing true recognition and eliminating the mnemonic benefit of music. These results are discussed in the context of potential music-based memory enhancement interventions for the care of patients with AD. ► We examined functional musical mnemonics in patients with AD and healthy older adults. ► Patients’ memory for specific content of lyrics was the same whether sung or spoken. ► All subjects had better memory for general content of lyrics when sung versus spoken.