Music has existed since the dawn of humanity…it serves as a form of social connection, expression of creativity and identity, cultural statement, and much more. In more recent decades, the link between music, learning, and memory has started to be explored in the study of neuroscience. As Dr. Dye touched on in our neuroscience seminar, playing an instrument has been proven to promote neuroplasticity all the way through older age; Even playing an instrument as a young adult can positively impact one’s memory, sound processing ability, and attention at age 65. After learning about these astonishing benefits, I wondered about the short term effects of just listening to music rather than playing it. Especially as I enter finals week, I am curious about the validity of study tips asserting that classical music can help one retain information for exams. The research article Classical music, educational learning, and slow wave sleep: A targeted memory reactivation experiment by Chenlu Gao, Paul Fillmore, and Michael K Scullin explores the impact of classical music on targeted memory reactivation, or TMR.
The 50 college-aged participants (ages 18-33) listened to pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, and Vivaldi while studying a microeconomics lecture and then either control noise or the same piano pieces during slow wave sleep. Half of the participants listened to the piano music being replayed while they slept (TMR condition), while the other half listened to white noise. Broadly, the results showed that the students in the TMR condition scored about 18% higher on their microeconomics test on the lecture material the next day compared to the students who listened to the white noise. The researchers suggested that this result occurred due to the music pairing, asserting that repeating the same pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, and Vivaldi stimulated the brain to consolidate memories of the information more efficiently. This reminds of similar phenomena, like when the scent of flowers or bread can bring one back to a specific memory or time.
Spectral analysis performed during the study also indicated that during slow wave sleep there was a notable increase in the frontal theta activity, a type of neural electrical pulse that is thought to play a role in information consolidation, processing, creativity, and memories. Theta activity is usually seen when the brain is in a relaxed state, like sleeping, meditation, or daydreaming. Following this logic, greater frontal theta activity could help protect against forgetting information from the microeconomics lecture, and increase memory consolidation related to higher scores on the exam. Essentially, the researchers successfully primed the students in the TMR condition to perform 18% better on the exam by simply playing the piano music as they slept and promoting heightened frontal lobe activity through doing so.
However, it is important to note that there was no significant disparity observed between the TMS and white noise groups during the follow up assessment conducted 9 months later. Both cohorts dropped down to baseline knowledge levels that matched their pretest scores. This indicates that the experimentally consolidated memories were no more resistant to long term forgetting compared to the control group. Further research could explore methods to promote long term memory retention through listening to music, as this experiment only showed benefits between listening to music while studying and its subsequent impact on next-day exam performance. As the semester nears its end for me and my fellow college students, this research expanding on the benefits of music through the lens of neuroscience offers intriguing study recommendations. For those cramming the night before an exam, consider incorporating classical music into your study routine and continue listening to the same pieces while you sleep. The potential 18% boost in performance the next day could be worth it.
Gao, C., Fillmore, P., & Scullin, M. K. (2020). Classical music, educational learning, and slow wave sleep: A targeted memory reactivation experiment. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 171, 107206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107206
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