How Music Can Strengthen and Rebuild Autobiographical Memory

Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201312/why-do-the-songs-your-past-evoke-such-vivid-memories

Summary: Listening to music has been shown to engage multiple neural networks across the brain, linking to motor actions, emotions, and creativity. The most active brain area engaged when listening to music is the medial prefrontal cortex region, one of the last areas of the brain to experience the damage of Alzheimer's disease. Activity in the dorsal part of the medial prefrontal cortex seems to be greater if the song someone is listening to holds important and vivid memories and associations from their past. Different processing areas of the brain seem to be linked to different qualities of music including musical pulse (the beat), timbre (tone, or color of the voice), and tonality (based on the relationship between the notes of a particular musical scale or key). The processing of musical pulse has been found to activate the same areas in the cerebellum and cerebrum that are responsible for motor activity, which lends evidence to the idea of close connection between music and movement (dance). Timbral processing activates cognitive areas in the cerebellum. Indications of timbral processing have also appeared in sensory areas of the cerebral hemispheres. Creativity associated with the default mode network (the brain network activated when people allow their minds to wander and 'default' to a state of rest while we are awake) seems to be connected to the processing of timbre, as well. Finally, tonality also seems to be processed in the dorsal part of the medial prefrontal cortex, a region associated with memory, demonstrating a probable connection between music and memory. Tonality and rhythm are also processed in limbic areas of the brain, which is likely the reason that music can be emotionally charged in an intense and meaningful way. The researchers cited in this article concluded that music actively engages large scale cognitive, motor, and limbic brain circuitry, and may be a tool for restoring memory in certain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. They also noted that, when it comes to autobiographical memory, music was more accurate in recalling memories than other forms of suggestion such as verbal prompts. They concluded that processing music activated areas in the parts of the brain that influenced the intensity of autobiographical memory.

Reflection: In cognitive psychology we discussed autobiographical memory, the memory of personal experiences and feelings in one's own past. This type of memory is extremely influential to identity because it allows us to retain the information learned as we make mistakes and experience  strong emotions throughout life. This article connects autobiographical memory with music, demonstrating that the brain processes music in the same areas of that are responsible for processing memory, especially autobiographical memory. A study they conducted showed that music more accurately brought back strong memories of one's past than did verbal prompts. In chapter three of the Garrett text, in which he discusses in detail the parts of the brain and their functions, we learn that the prefrontal cortex is involved in adjusting behavior based on rewards and punishments, and in decision making to a certain extent. It would make sense that memory and memory recall are influenced by the way people learn from past experiences and the way that information is integrated into current self-concepts which, in turn, influence the way people make decisions and choose plans of action based on their own beliefs and experiences. So if music is shown to activate those same areas in the prefrontal cortex as autobiographical memory of emotionally charged past experiences, then listening to and processing music should, in theory, bring to mind more accurate and detailed memories and sensations of those past experiences. The prefrontal cortex is the largest region of the human brain, and has been associated with depression and schizophrenia. In the days when psychosurgery was used as a means of recovering from these disorders, many failed lobotomies resulted in patients being emotionally blunted and distractible. The prefrontal cortex region of the brain was damaged, and the consequences seemed to be diluted emotion and attention, two concepts that are tied to autobiographical memory. It seems reasonable to conclude that strong emotion brought up by listening to music would be tied back to the prefrontal cortex, as the research in this article suggests. If this is the case autobiographical memory compromised in people with damage to the prefrontal cortex, could be restored, to an extent, by listening to music that brings familiar emotional responses to the listener. Diluted emotion and attention could both be mediated by music and its memory recall effects, which is an exciting line of study for music therapy and cognitive therapy for cases ranging from Alzheimer's to depression to any number of illnesses. Music seems to have great potential for rebuilding memory across different disorders and for influencing emotions and mood to possibly assist in balancing mood disorders.