BY JESSIE WANG
Music & Memory
This Sounds Like Science (ongoing series)
Presented as part of National Science Week with Inspiring Australia and Sydney Science Festival
City Recital Hall, 9 August
Walking through Martin Place at 12pm on a weekday felt hectic – I was bumping into people in business suits carrying their lunches and hurriedly rushing back to their offices. I felt out of place. Although I was about the same age as these people, I was in jeans and a jumper with kittens on it.
I could’ve been in business attire, but I was a musician who was attending a lunchtime concert.
Walking into City Recital Hall at Angel Place, I felt out of place again. I thought given the place and time of the event, many of the attendees would also be other people their 20s. Instead, a sassy elderly man muttered to his wife: “The average age around here is beyond retirement.”
Music & Memory was one of the many events presented by the Sydney Science Festival, with more than 200 events across Sydney in 10 days that aimed to “bring science to life” through multidisciplinary innovation. This particular event was presented by Muireann Irish – an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, along with wonderful violinist and a beautiful friend of mine Marrianne Liu.
Muireann started by explaining what happens to our brain when we listen to music. Without boring you with a list of parts of the brain (but music does affect most parts of our brain), the most activity lies in the dopaminergic system, she said, which releases chemicals when something is pleasurable. When we listen to the climax of a piece, we have a spike in our dopamine production.
She then went on to explain some groundbreaking research on music and dementia. First, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Mozart Effect, which claimed that kids’ visual and spatial abilities were superior if they listened to Mozart rather than other types of music. Well, Muireann debunked this effect, saying scientists couldn’t replicate it. Damn! But we were still able to listen to Marrianne playing Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5, which I was happy to listen, whether that was meant to increase my intelligence or not.
Muireann then described Alive Inside (would 100 per cent recommend), which followed the founder of non-profit organisation Music & Memory on his “fight against a broken healthcare system” using music. And the effects and implications are simply stunning – when using personalised iPods, people with dementia responded powerfully to music. Muireann went on to explain that they were able to recall personal memories. They could reduce their pharmacological intake. They had reduced anxiety, depression, agitation and wandering. They had increased cognitive function, socialising, cognitive function, recognition, and even food intake when music is played in food settings. These benefits hold for all stages of dementia.
That all sounds really positive, but Muireann followed by giving us recommendations on what we can do. She talked about the reminiscence bump, which basically says that during our lives we have the most memories for when we’re aged approximately 15-30, so there’s a “bump” in our number of memories compared to every other stage in our lives. Muireann referred to a researcher who picked the music that stayed the longest in the charts, and found that those with Alzheimer’s were able to recall numerous memories when these top-chart songs were in their reminiscence bump.
Now, before you start Googling which song was on the charts when your grandparents were in their teens, remember that whatever music you play, it has to be personalised. Muireann referred to her own grandmother, whose memory was slowly deteriorating due to Alzheimer’s. When Muireann showed her some Mozart, she quickly ripped the headphones out of her ears and shouted, ‘Can you turn that down?’. Sure, we as classical musicians might be shocked that the Mozart Effect couldn’t be replicated, but to someone who has never heard of Mozart before, what use would that be?
Walking out of the event, I was ambivalent. I had heard so much insight into what music could do, but at the same time, I felt so guilty that I had not researched on my own grandma’s favourite music before she gave in to dementia. If there’s one thing that I took away from the event, it would be to start finding people’s musical preferences before it’s too late.
Now’s my time to share more music with my loved ones, and let that music turn into memories.
Check out the City Recital Hall website for more This Sounds Like Science events throughout the year.
Images supplied. Credit: David Vagg.
