The Well-Tempered Ear

Making music saves senior brains, studies find

January 30, 2024
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By Jacob Stockinger

If you are a senior and think that making music— even as a beginner — is for younger people, you couldn’t be more wrong.

A newly released British study offers convincing evidence that singing in a choir (below top, the now-defunct UW-Madison Choral Union) and playing an instrument (below bottom) helps to boost memory,  and save the brains of older people, possibly averting or postponing cognitive decline, dementia and possibly Alzheimer’s disease. 

Here are links, on Classic FM radio station’s website, to the stories about the two studies:

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/piano-choir-keeps-brain-memory-active/

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/piano-lessons-older-age-delay-dementia/

How does your own experience measure up to findings in the studies?

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