Music can reveal which areas of the brain are affected by aging

Older people are just as capable as younger people at remembering pieces of music, but some parts of their brains have to work harder, according to a new study from Aarhus University, recently published in the journal Biology of communications.

The study is notable because it combines classical music and neurophysiology to map changes that occur in the brain with age.

At Aarhus University Hospital, 76 participants underwent brain scans while listening to a piano piece by German composer and organist Johann Sebastian Bach, which they had heard twice before.

The study shows that when older adults listen to familiar music, areas of the brain related to the senses become more active, while regions responsible for memory function are less active.

“This suggests that sensory areas in older brains work harder to compensate for the reduced response of areas typically involved in memory processes,” says Professor Leonardo Bonetti of the Center for Music in the Brain, part of the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University. He conducted the study in collaboration with researchers from the University of Oxford.

“The study highlights that changes in brain functionality do not necessarily lead to disease or dysfunction. Aging is not just about a declining brain, but about a brain adapting to challenges and compensating for mechanisms that become less efficient,” he explains.

Potential applications in dementia research

During the digitization, modified versions of the original melodies were also presented to the participants.

The scans showed that when older people listen to variations of music they have never heard before, the central areas of the brain involved in memory processes react less than in younger people. Activity in sensory regions remains unchanged.

“The older group simply does not show the same brain reactions as the younger group when they hear new variations of the music. This may help explain the mechanism that makes it difficult for older people to cope with changes in general,” Bonetti says.

He hopes the study will improve understanding of how memory works and, in the long term, could influence how we screen older people at risk of developing dementia.

“We are now planning to expand the study to include people with mild dementia. We hope to be able to identify biomarkers and use the data to predict how changes in brain functionality indicate the likelihood of developing dementia,” the researcher explains.

Bach’s music is well suited for memory studies

The study used musical sequences inspired by the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, and that was no coincidence, Bonetti explains.

Bach’s music is very easy to remember because it combines strong harmonies and a clear hierarchical structure, which is repeated many times, especially in the Prelude in C minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, for which scholars have created a simplified and controlled version.

“Participants heard the piece twice and memorized it. In memory research, music is often better than, say, numbers or text because it is intuitively memorable. This allows us to more easily discover how the brain processes information over time. So music is a great tool for understanding how the brain changes its function to support memory as we age,” Bonetti says.