Research Proposal – Morgane Kapto's Writing for the Sciences Portfolio

Music On The Mind: The Effects of Playing an Instrument on the Risk of Dementia

Morgane Kapto

City College of New York

ENGL 21003: Writing for the Sciences

Professor Debra Williams

April 21, 2025

Introduction

As healthcare and medical advancements emerge and improve, people have now been living longer, with the global average life expectancy being 73.1 years in 2019, a big increase from 66.8 years in 2000 (WHO, n.d.). Despite scientific advances, aging still comes with its caveats, like mental decline in the form of dementia. Dementia, diseases that affect memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily activities, is a common side effect of aging, affecting over 50 million people worldwide as of 2021 and 10 million new cases each year (WHO, 2025). Fortunately, some activities have been found to help with memory, such as playing an instrument. One study done by Liebscher found that playing a musical instrument resulted in increased brain activity in regions associated with motor, sensory, and cognitive networks, implying protective effects against cognitive decline (Liebscher et al., 2024). However, they fail to explore how playing an instrument specifically affects the onset of dementia. This study aims to fill that gap, focusing on the effects of playing an instrument on dementia risk in older adults.

Background Information

Based on the current literature on this topic, this study hypothesizes that playing an instrument will decrease the risk of dementia and improve memory in older adults. This hypothesis is backed by studies that have already been done. For example, Ahmed Arafa and his peers at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in Japan conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of available cohort studies and concluded that there was an inverse association between playing a musical instrument and the risk of dementia among older adults (Arafa et al., 2022). They also observed this benefit when older adults engaged in other musical activities such as karaoke.

Similarly, an observational longitudinal study conducted by Judith Okely and her peers at the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland found that greater experience of playing a musical instrument was associated with better verbal ability, verbal memory, visual memory, visuospatial ability, and processing speed at age 70 and up. Surprisingly, playing a musical instrument was not associated with a lower cognitive decline over the 12 years observed (Okely et al., 2023). Nevertheless, this study affirms the previous studies conclusion that playing a musical instrument can help with certain cognitive functions which can lower the risk of dementia.

However, not all studies reciprocate this positive sentiment. A different but related study conducted by registered nurse and PhD Nursing Director Anneli Pitkänen and her peers at Tampere University Hospital in Finland found that there was a correlation between music interventions and dosage of antipsychotics and anxiolytics, medications frequently prescribed to dementia patients (Pitkänen et al., 2019). This implies that active music therapy may prove to be too overstimulating for psychogeriatric patients and that simply music listening is better suited for their needs. Despite this study’s findings, it is still important to determine whether playing an instrument comes with benefits in the face of dementia, rather than its effects on a broad range of mental and psychiatric illnesses.

Methods

Balbag, M. A., Pedersen, N. L., & Gatz, M. (2014). Playing a musical instrument as a protective factor against dementia and cognitive impairment: A population-based twin study. International Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 1–6. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1155/2014/836748

Researchers at the University of Southern California and the Karolinska Institutet conducted a study on twins to investigate the effect of playing a musical instrument on the risk of dementia. They drew their data from a population of twins that were above the age of 65 and considered susceptible to dementia based on cognitive screening tests. The participants completed questionnaires to determine their experience with playing an instrument, and that information was used to perform a conditional logistic regression analysis to test for association. The study revealed that playing an instrument is significantly associated with a decreased risk of dementia and cognitive impairment for older adults, when genetic and environmental factors are controlled. This supports my hypothesis, implying that playing an instrument does play a role in lowering the risk of dementia. This information can be used to fuel more research using twins, looking for causation instead of correlation between the two variables.

Lakra, S. B., Navare, A. A., Kamath, R. U., Angane, E., & Khan, U. S. (2025). Assessment of memory and executive functioning in healthy adult instrumental musicians. European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, 15(2), 280–284.

Researchers at the Department of Physiology at Seth G.S. Medical College and K.E.M. Hospital in Mumbai aimed to investigate the relationship between playing a musical instrument and neuro-cognitive abilities. A comparative, observational, and cross-sectional study took place, involving a group of musicians as well as non-musicians aged 25 to 35. The participants were asked to complete tests to assess their executive functioning and their memory. Their data revealed that musicians exhibited higher scores on the memory assessment and proved to complete the executive functioning assessment faster than their nonmusical peers. After analyzing the data through the use of the Mann-Whitney U test, these distinctions were found to be statistically significant, implying that playing an instrument significantly improves an individual’s cognitive abilities. Thus demonstrated improved memory and executive functioning may help prevent the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease or other neurocognitive disorders. This supports my hypothesis that playing an instrument can help improve memory. This information can help support future research to further explore the specific neurological pathways that playing an instrument activates and protects.

Okely, J. A., Cox, S. R., Deary, I. J., Luciano, M., & Overy, K. (2023). Cognitive aging and experience of playing a musical instrument. Psychology & Aging, 38(7), 696–711. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1037/pag0000768

This study, conducted by researchers in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, aimed to address the research gap of the current literature lacking longitudinal research with older adults, insufficient modeling of cognitive domains, and few studies including participants with early life experience as musicians. They conducted a narrow-age longitudinal cohort study spanning 10 years between the participants ages of 70 and 82, and measured their experience playing a musical instrument and included detailed assessments of their abilities in different cognitive domains. The researchers analyzed the data using a structural equation modeling framework to test for an association between the variables. Their results showed a statistically significant association between experience playing a musical instrument, visuospatial ability, and processing speeds, despite a reduction over the years. Additionally, their data revealed that experience playing a musical instrument is positively associated with improvement on a single test of general cognitive ability between the ages of 11 and 70. However, it was not positively associated with a change in all cognitive ability, suggesting that cognitive differences arose earlier in life. This provides more nuance to my hypothesis, suggesting that individuals may only reap these benefits when they begin playing an instrument as a child. Further research is needed to investigate this theory.

Vetere, G., Williams, G., Ballard, C., Creese, B., Hampshire, A., Palmer, A., Pickering, E., Richards, M., Brooker, H., & Corbett, A. (2024). The relationship between playing musical instruments and cognitive trajectories: Analysis from a UK ageing cohort. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 39(2), 1–9. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1002/gps.6061

This nested study done by researchers at various psychology and psychiatry institutions and universities in the United Kingdom aimed to explore the relationship between playing an instrument and cognitive function among older adults. The target population included adults over the age of 40 who did not have a diagnosis of dementia and were sorted based on demographic information such as age, sex, ethnicity, and education level. Participants were required to complete a questionnaire to self-report their musical expertise as well as completing another assessment to measure their cognitive performance. This data was then put through a linear regression analysis to identify if an association existed between the two variables. The researchers found a strong association between key musical factors and cognitive performance, specifically that playing an instrument is associated with better working memory and executive function. This supports my hypothesis, as a better working memory and executive function can have protective effects against dementia. More research is needed to see whether this correlation is also causation.

Walsh, S., Causer, R., & Brayne, C. (2021). Does playing a musical instrument reduce the incidence of cognitive impairment and dementia? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Aging & Mental Health, 25(4), 593–601. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1080/13607863.2019.1699019

Researchers in the domain of public health at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom sought to investigate the effect of playing a musical instrument on the incidence of cognitive impairment and dementia in the form of a systematic review and meta-analysis. They focused on three studies, two of which were cohort-based and one of which involved twins. From a thorough analysis of these studies, researchers found that musicians were 64% less likely to develop dementia and that playing an instrument resulted in a 59% decrease in the risk of developing dementia. The researchers formed the conclusion that playing a musical instrument demonstrates a significant protective effect against cognitive impairment and dementia. This supports my hypothesis that playing an instrument is effective in lowering the risk of dementia. Further research must be conducted to determine how effective and how strong the protective effect is in avoiding dementia and other neurocognitive disorders.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of numerous studies, it is clear that playing an instrument can have many positive effects on memory and cognitive abilities, improving the speed of working memory and verbal ability. These neurological boosts are associated with a decreased risk of dementia, implying that the act of playing an instrument has protective effects against dementia and other cognitive disorders. These studies prove promising for the rapidly growing aging populations around the world, who may wish to enhance their quality of life by participating in musical activities to remain neurologically healthy and fit. In order for this demographic to truly reap the benefits of this fascinating discovery, more research is needed as there are still questions left unanswered. Are the protective benefits still observed if an individual begins playing an instrument later in life? How often must an individual practice in order to see the cognitive benefits? Can playing a musical instrument be an effective treatment for those already with dementia? With all of these lingering questions, it is imperative that further research is conducted so that we can fully understand the relationship between music and dementia, allowing us to protect the minds of those we hold dear.

Works Cited

Arafa, A., Teramoto, M., Maeda, S., Sakai, Y., Nosaka, S., Gao, Q., Kawachi, H., Kashima, R., Matsumoto, C., & Kokubo, Y. (2022). Playing a musical instrument and the risk of dementia among older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. BMC Neurology, 22(1), 1–6. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1186/s12883-022-02902-z

Liebscher, M., Dell’Orco, A., Doll-Lee, J., Buerger, K., Dechent, P., Ewers, M., Fliessbach, K., Glanz, W., Hetzer, S., Janowitz, D., Kilimann, I., Laske, C., Lüsebrink, F., Munk, M., Perneczky, R., Peters, O., Preis, L., Priller, J., Rauchmann, B., & Rostamzadeh, A. (2024). Short communication: Lifetime musical activity and resting-state functional connectivity in cognitive networks. PLoS ONE, 19(5), 1–17. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0299939

Pitkänen, A., Alanen, H.-M., Kampman, O., Suontaka-Jamalainen, K., & Leinonen, E. (2019). Implementing physical exercise and music interventions for patients suffering from dementia on an acute psychogeriatric inpatient ward. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 73(7), 401–408. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1080/08039488.2019.1645205

World Health Organization. (2025, March 31). Dementia. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Global Health estimates life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimates/ghe-life-expectancy-and-healthy-life-expectancy