The study involved 13 patients and 14 controls, who listened to either spoken lyrics or lyrics sung with full musical accompaniment while reading the printed lyrics on a screen. The 40 lyrics were four-line excerpts of children’s songs, all characterized by having simple, unrepeated lyrics, repetitive melodies, and a perfect end-rhyme scheme for the four lines. The participants were then given these 40 lyrics mixed in with 40 other similar lyrics, and asked whether they had heard it earlier. Alzheimer’s patients were markedly more likely to recognize those they had heard sung (40% compared to 28% of the spoken). Interestingly, the controls showed no difference, although of course their performance was considerably better (77% and 74%).
It may be that setting new information, such as simple instructions, to music might help Alzheimer’s patients remember it.
On a side note, a recent study found that classical music (four short pieces by different composers) affected the heart rates of people in a vegetative state in the same way as they did those of healthy listeners, suggesting that music affects emotion at very deep level. (see http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19123-classical-music-moves-the-he...)
Reference:
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(Submitted). Music as a memory enhancer in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Neuropsychologia. In Press, Corrected Proof,
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(Submitted). Heart rate variability: An index of brain processing in vegetative state? An artificial intelligence, data mining study.
Clinical Neurophysiology. In Press, Corrected Proof,
