Musical instrument engagement across the life course and episodic memory in late life: An analysis of 60 years of longitudinal data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Background As the global burden of dementia increases, the absence of treatment underscores the need for identification of factors that may improve cognitive reserve–the ability to stave off cognitive decline in old age. The beneficial association between musical instrument engagement and episodic memory has been identified in children, young adults, and older adults. Yet, previous studies in musical instrument engagement have rarely examined the potential for adolescence and adulthood exposures to independently improve cognition, nor have they been linked with the rate of memory decline over time in older adults. We investigated whether adolescent musical instrument engagement and continued musical instrument engagement over the adult life course were separately associated with higher episodic memory, as well as rate of decline in a large longitudinal cohort. Methods Data were from a prospective cohort of high school graduates from 1957. High school music engagement (HSME) was ascertained through graduate yearbooks and assessed as membership in musical performance groups. A questionnaire was used to assess musical engagement through adulthood (MEA) at ages 35, 55, and 65. The episodic memory score was composed of immediate and delayed recall task scores, and was assessed when participants were aged approximately 65 and 72 years old among 5,718 individuals. Linear mixed models were used to assess the association between music, and memory performance and decline over time. Results Of high school graduates who participated in the study, 38.1% played music in high school, and 21.1% played music in adulthood. While musical engagement was more common in those who played in childhood, 40% of those who played continuously as an adult did not play in high school. High HSME (B = 0.348, p = 0.049) and continuous MEA (B = 0.424, p = 0.012) were associated with higher memory scores at age 65 after covariate adjustment. When examining memory decline, the benefits of high HSME decreased over time (B = -0.435, p = 0.048), while the rate of decline did not differ between MEA groups. Exploratory models revealed differential benefits for HSME and immediate recall, and MEA and delayed recall. Conclusion This study provides further evidence that musical engagement in childhood or adulthood is associated with non-musical cognitive reserve. These two exposures may act differentially in different domains of episodic memory. Further work is needed to determine the relationship between musicianship and the rate of cognitive decline.

Musical Activity During Life Is Associated With Multi-Domain Cognitive and Brain Benefits in Older Adults

“…In contrast, participants with musical activity did not differ from controls in the domain of learning and memory, although this must be perceived as an essential cognitive skill involved in playing a musical instrument ( Talamini et al, 2017 ). Some correlational studies have reported that musical activity is indeed associated with better episodic memory in OA ( Hanna-Pladdy and MacKay, 2011 ; Gooding et al, 2014 ; Mansens et al, 2018 ; Romeiser et al, 2021 ), while others do not find such effects ( Hanna-Pladdy and Gajewski, 2012 ; Fauvel et al, 2014b ; Strong and Mast, 2019 ). Taken together, our findings in OA substantiate that musical activity may predominantly favor cognitive abilities involving the frontal lobe.…”

Let’s go beyond “the effect of”: Reappraising the impact of ordinary activities on cognition

“…For example, lower initial cognitive performance, lower socioeconomic status (Román-Caballero et al, 2021a), higher body mass index (Xue et al, 2019), or higher baseline levels of anxiety and depression (Williams & Lord, 1997) are conditions that have been linked with greater benefits in musical training and physical activity, presumably due to a greater window of opportunity. Situations of cognitive vulnerability, such as aging (Chen et al, 2020;Román-Caballero et al, 2018;Romeiser et al, 2021) and brain disorders (Dauwan et al, 2021), also benefit more than people in an optimal state of functioning. And when studied in children and adolescents, the younger participants incur greater benefits (Román-Caballero et al, 2021a;Sanabria et al, 2019).…”

Beat alignment ability is associated with formal musical training not current music playing

“…While there are clearly many investigations in the literature comparing musicians and nonmusicians, fewer break the dichotomy down into different types of musicianship and when they do, the results are often mixed. For instance, some studies have compared professional to amateur musicians and nonmusicians ( Kauffman and Carlsen, 1989 ; Gaser and Schlaug, 2003 ; Hove et al, 2010 ; Krause et al, 2010 ; Repp, 2010 ; Mikutta et al, 2014 ; Appelgren et al, 2019 ), early- vs. late-trained musicians ( Watanabe et al, 2007 ; Bailey and Penhune, 2010 , 2013 ; Steele et al, 2013 ; Bailey et al, 2014 ; Shenker et al, 2022 ), and active vs. inactive musicians ( Hanna-Pladdy and Gajewski, 2012 ; Bonde et al, 2018 ; Romeiser et al, 2021 ). This last classification of active vs. inactive musicians is especially important for investigating how ingrained these musical abilities truly are—do they dull without regular maintenance or are they set in stone once perfected?…”