Starting an instrument in later life linked to steadier memory
Kyoto University researchers found older adults who kept practicing music showed less memory decline and less shrinkage in a key brain region over four years.
By Tom Brennan · Health & Medicine Correspondent
3 min read
Older adults who learned a musical instrument and kept practicing for several years maintained verbal working memory better than peers who stopped, Kyoto University researchers reported. The findings suggest music training begun in the 70s may be tied to healthier aging in brain areas involved in memory and learning.
The study, published in Imaging Neuroscience, followed participants from an earlier Kyoto University project that tested first-time musical training in older adults. At the start of that work, the participants’ average age was 73, according to the university.
Kyoto University said its earlier report found that four months of instrument practice was associated with gains in memory performance and function in the putamen, a brain region that tends to change with age. The follow-up study asked whether any benefits could last beyond the short training period.
After the initial four months, about half of the participants continued practicing an instrument for more than three years, Kyoto University said. The others stopped playing and took up other hobbies instead.
Four years after the original training began, researchers brought participants back for MRI scans and cognitive testing. The brain scans focused on the putamen and the cerebellum, two regions Kyoto University said are known to decline with age and also respond to musical instrument training.
At the beginning of the study, the two groups did not show significant differences in brain structure or cognitive performance, according to the university. By the four-year mark, the researchers reported a split between those who continued music practice and those who did not.
Participants who had stopped playing showed weaker performance on a verbal working memory test and a loss of gray matter volume in the right putamen, Kyoto University said. Participants who continued playing did not show the same decline in memory performance or the same degree of putamen shrinkage.
The researchers also reported broader activity across both cerebellums in the group that kept practicing compared with the group that stopped. Kyoto University described the cerebellum and putamen as areas tied to both age-related change and musical training.
Kaoru Sekiyama, the study’s corresponding author, said the team was surprised that the effects in older beginners were concentrated in those two regions and appeared to counter age-related decline. Sekiyama said the results indicate that beginning an instrument in old age can still bring meaningful benefits.
The researchers framed music practice as one possible way to support brain health alongside other mentally stimulating activities and physical exercise. Sekiyama also said instrument playing could be useful for older adults who have pain or other problems that make physical activity difficult.
The journal reference lists the study as “Never too late to start musical instrument training: Effects on working memory and subcortical preservation in healthy older adults across 4 years,” by Xueyan Wang and colleagues. Kyoto University provided the study summary.
This story draws on original reporting from ScienceDaily.