Music Enhances Category Fluency In Healthy Older Adults And Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Abstract

Exposure to some music, in particular classical music, has been reported to produce transient increases in cognitive performance. The authors investigated the effect of listening to an excerpt of Vivaldi's Four Seasons on category fluency in healthy older adult controls and Alzheimer's disease patients. In a counterbalanced repeated-measure design, participants completed two, 1-min category fluency tasks whilst listening to an excerpt of Vivaldi and two, 1-min category fluency tasks without music. The authors report a positive effect of music on category fluency, with performance in the music condition exceeding performance without music in both the healthy older adult control participants and the Alzheimer's disease patients. In keeping with previous reports, the authors conclude that music enhances attentional processes, and that this can be demonstrated in Alzheimer's disease.

Notes

The authors thank Diane Reynolds and Niamh James who helped with part of the data collection, and patients and volunteers at the Research Institute for the Care of the Elderly, St. Martin's Hospital, Bath.