Wednesday, May 15, 2024
5/15/2024
With steady growth of the aging population and associated pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease, the need for understanding age-related changes in cognition is pertinent and critical. One important aspect of cognition that declines in both healthy and pathological aging is the ability to recall episodically-detailed autobiographical memories. One potential way to cue vivid and detailed autobiographical memories is through the use of musical cues. However, whether music is a particularly effective memory cue for older adults, and the mechanisms underlying such music-induced reminiscence, are currently unknown. The primary goal of the proposed research program is to determine whether music improves autobiographical memory retrieval in healthy aging, and whether such music-induced remembering leads to increased positive emotions. The studies proposed here are designed around a novel framework which proposes that music is a particularly effective memory cue for evoking memories involuntarily – that is, music evokes memories that spontaneously come to mind with little cognitive effort. These memories are in contrast to memories retrieved in a voluntary manner, which may require cognitive capacities that are degraded over the course of the lifespan. Aim 1 will investigate autobiographical memory retrieval in response to musical and other sensory cues across the lifespan. These studies will test the prediction that music-evoked memories will be relatively preserved in healthy aging, and will be evoked in a more involuntary manner, as compared to memories evoked by other sensory cues. Aim 2 will investigate the emotional outcomes of such music-induced reminiscence in older adults. We predict that memory-evoking music will induce prolonged positive changes in mood, as compared to music that does not evoke memories. Overall, this work aims to develop an understanding of how music affects autobiographical memory and emotional responses across the lifespan. The results of this work could form the basis for future interventions which use music to improve cognitive functioning, mood, and wellbeing in older adults.
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