Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience, Geriatric Research Education Clinical Center, Bedford VA Hospital, Bedford, MA 01730, United States.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Aug;48(10):3164-7. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.04.033. Epub 2010 May 7.
Musical mnemonics have a long and diverse history of popular use. In addition, music processing in general is often considered spared by the neurodegenerative effects of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Research examining these two phenomena is limited, and no work to our knowledge has explored the effectiveness of musical mnemonics in AD. The present study sought to investigate the effect of music at encoding on the subsequent recognition of associated verbal information. Lyrics of unfamiliar children's songs were presented bimodally at encoding, and visual stimuli were accompanied by either a sung or a spoken recording. Patients with AD demonstrated better recognition accuracy for the sung lyrics than the spoken lyrics, while healthy older adults showed no significant difference between the two conditions. We propose two possible explanations for these findings: first, that the brain areas subserving music processing may be preferentially spared by AD, allowing a more holistic encoding that facilitates recognition, and second, that music heightens arousal in patients with AD, allowing better attention and improved memory.
音乐记忆术有着悠久而多样的历史，被广泛应用。此外，一般来说，音乐处理通常被认为可以免受阿尔茨海默病（AD）的神经退行性影响。目前，对这两种现象的研究还很有限，据我们所知，还没有研究探索音乐记忆术在 AD 中的有效性。本研究旨在调查在编码时使用音乐对随后识别相关口头信息的影响。在编码时，以双模态的方式呈现陌生的儿童歌曲的歌词，视觉刺激伴随着唱歌或说话的录音。与说话的歌词相比，AD 患者对唱歌的歌词有更好的识别准确性，而健康的老年人在这两种情况下没有显著差异。我们提出了这一发现的两种可能解释：第一，负责音乐处理的大脑区域可能免受 AD 的影响，从而可以进行更全面的编码，从而促进识别；第二，音乐可以提高 AD 患者的兴奋度，从而提高注意力和改善记忆力。
