An interesting study in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease states that music is stored in a part of the brain that is not affected by either Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia with the prefrontal cortex being a part of the brain that Alzheimer’s seems to touch last. This prefrontal cortex is associated with memory that is triggered by music. In around 2010, Dan Cohen, an American social worker, passionate about music therapy, asked a documentary film-maker to accompany him as he visited various nursing homes demonstrating the effect that playing favourite music via iPods, had on the quality of life of patients, as reflected in their mood and behaviour. The families of these patients who initially appeared to have little connection with the world and themselves were contacted, requesting a playlist of favourite songs.
The filmmaker was so amazed by the positive results, that he ended up following the social worker for four years and made the film Alive Inside. The music that you listen to and love in your teens is the music that will remain with you for the rest of your life, embedded in your memory at the crucial time when you and your brain are determining just who you are. For Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, this music opens the rusty gates of their memory taking them back to a watershed time in their lives.
Favourite songs and or tunes that are associated with important memories trigger the recall of lyrics and importantly, the experience connected with that piece of music. In 1978, the Little River Band with their song Reminiscing summed it up nicely:
‘Now as the years roll on, each time we hear our favourite song, the memories come along, older times we’re missing, spending the hours reminiscing.’ (You’re humming it aren’t you?)
Just as smells can trigger the full gambit of emotions, so too can music. Whenever I hear Danny Boy, I hear my mum playing it on the piano, while another friend hears his father singing it to him as a young boy. Strong emotional links. It doesn’t explain my tears when the bagpipe band marches past on ANZAC day – unless there is some kilt-wearing, haggis-eating ancestor who pillaged the lowlands in my genetic history!
Of course, when you are talking about remembering theme songs to TV shows, it is the repeated exposure to these theme songs that also drummed the lyrics or tune into your auditory cortex. So, unless you can make up a song about where you put your glasses and sing it to yourself 100 times, you can be forgiven (mostly) for your memory lapse. ‘Be in the moment’, as my friend tells me.
*mnemonic – a system such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations which assists in remembering something (Oxford Dictionary).
Two men in their 20s have died after attending a music festival in Sydney. NSW Police were called to Sydney Olympic Park, where the Knockout Outdoor Festival was being held, shortly before 1am on Sunday morning. A 26-year-old man was treated at the scene by paramedics, before being taken to nearby Concord Hospital, where he later died. In a separate incident, a 21-year-old man was treated by paramedics at a hotel on George Street in Chippendale. He was transported to a hospital and died shortly […]
