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Essay

Music Making and the Aging Brain

Published Online:May 28, 2013https://doi.org/10.1024/1016-264X/a000095

Abstract

The chapter reviews the evidence in support of the idea that cognitive functions can benefit from listening to music or making music and how this evidence might be used to stabilize cognitive aging and prevent or diminish cognitive decline. The beneficial effects are more or less direct (e. g., for auditory perception) or indirect (e. g., for arousal and motivation). The core functions engaged during music listening or music making are executive functions that include attention, working memory, planning, and motor control. These functions are mainly controlled by neural networks located in the frontal cortex, the brain area that undergoes strongest decline in volume with increasing age. In this paper it is argued that this shrinkage of the frontal cortex or the natural course of the decline in frontal brain volume can be counteracted by engaging frontal executive functions through music listening and making. However, current experimental data supporting beneficial effects of music listening and music making is scarce. Therefore, well controlled randomized control group experiments are urgently needed.


Musizieren und das alternde Gehirn

In diesem Essay wird die Ansicht vertreten, dass Musizieren oder Musikhören günstige Effekte auf das kognitive Funktionen haben kann und dass diese günstigen Effekte genutzt werden können, um kognitive Leistungen im Alter zu stabilisieren und den kognitiven Abbau zu verhindern oder zu verringern. Je nach kognitiver Domäne sind die günstigen Effekte von Musik direkt (zum Beispiel für die auditorischen Funktionen) oder indirekt (zum Beispiel für die Aufmerksamkeit und die Motivation). Die Kernfunktionen, die beim Musikhören und Musikmachen genutzt werden, sind die exekutiven Funktionen, die Aufmerksamkeit, Arbeitsgedächtnis, kognitives Planen und die motorische Kontrolle. Viele dieser Funktionen werden durch neuronale Netzwerke kontrolliert, die im Frontalkortex lokalisiert sind, einem Hirngebiet, das im Alter auch einem erheblichen Abbau ausgesetzt ist. In diesem Essay wird argumentiert, dass insbesondere diesem Abbau durch Musizieren und Musikhören entgegengewirkt werden kann. Trotz erster Befunde, welche diese These stützen, sind die experimentellen Ergebnisse diesbezüglich bislang noch recht spärlich. Deshalb sind kontrollierte randomisierte Gruppenexperimente zwingend notwendig, um die Wirksamkeit von Musizieren und Musikhören auf das kognitive Altern näher zu untersuchen.

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