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Benefits of playing a musical instrument on cognitive reserve: A literature review
Cognitive reserve declines with old age (Craik, 1986; Krampe, 2002); however, cognitive reserve can be built or maintained through playing a musical instrument (Zendel & Alain, 2010; Halpern & Bartlett, 1995). Taking a life course perspective, playing a musical instrument at an early age shows benefits later in life. Studies demonstrate that children who play musical instruments have higher cognitive scores when compared to their peers who do not (Norton et al., 2005). In addition, brain imaging studies show that children that play musical instruments before the age of 7 have greater brain density (Schlaug, 2001). Combining life course with activity theory, playing musical instruments can be beneficial in later life and maintain cognition. More recent studies show that older adults who play musical instruments have maintained certain cognitive areas such as auditory, motor, and visual (Chen et al., 2008; Zatorre et al., 2007) and perform better in cognitive tests than their peers who do not play a musical instrument. In addition, the biopsychosocial model is used to explain why playing a musical instrument maintains or enhance cognitive reserve. By maintaining cognitive reserve, one can prevent the debilitating effects of mild cognitive impairment, and various dementias including Alzheimer's disease. This literature review contributes to the existing body of knowledge by theoretical application, combination of findings from previous research, and a demonstration of studies of maintained or enhanced cognitive reserve in later life from playing a musical instrument.
Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate the importance of building or maintaining cognitive reserve from playing a musical instrument; thereby, decreasing the risk of developing dementia and other related cognitive decline diseases
Keyword(s): Research, Dementia
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been doing research in this area by gathering important literature would like to present this finding to the public health community. There is a lack of empirical research on the topic and I am going to fill that gap with further research. Among my scientific interests has been to understand the aging brain in regards to music.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
