Georgia Tech study unveils music’s role in modulating memory and emotion

The soundtrack of this story starts with a vaguely recognizable and pleasant groove. But when I stop writing and listen for a moment, the music fully reveals itself. I recognize ‘Cantaloupe Island’ in Freddie Hubbard’s comfortable, lilting trumpet solo over Herbie Hancock’s melodic, repetitive piano playing. Then, with my fingers back on the keyboard, Freddie and Herbie fade into the background, followed by other instrumental music: captivating -; but not disturbing -; sonic nourishment, fueling my concentration and productivity.

I think Yiren Ren is studying somewhere, focused on her research showing how music affects learning and memory. She may listen to Norah Jones, or another musician she feels comfortable with. Because that’s how it works: the music we know and perhaps like, music that feels predictable or even safe -; that music can help us study and learn. Meanwhile, Ren has also discovered that other types of music can influence our emotions and reshape old memories.

Ren, a sixth-year Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech’s School of Psychology, is exploring these concepts as lead author of two new research articles in the journals PLOS One And Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience (CABN).

These studies are linked because they both explore innovative applications of music in memory modulation and provide insights for both everyday and clinical use.”

Yiren Ren, Ph.D. student, Georgia Tech’s School of Psychology

But the collective research examines the impact of music in very different ways, explains Ren’s faculty advisor and co-author of the study, Thackery Brown.

“One paper looks at how music changes the quality of your memory when you first form it – it’s about learning,” says Brown, a cognitive neuroscientist who leads the MAP (Memory, Affect, and Planning) Lab at Tech . “But the other research focuses on memories we already have and asks whether we can change the emotions associated with them with music.”

Create atmosphere with music

If we watch a movie with a robust score -; music created to arouse emotions -; what we hear leads us exactly where the composer wants us to go. In their CABN In their study, Ren, Brown and their collaborators from the University of Colorado (including former Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Grace Leslie) report that this kind of “mood music” can also be powerful enough to change the way we remember our past.

Their study involved 44 Georgia Tech students listening to movie soundtracks while recalling a difficult memory. Ren is quick to point out that this was not a clinical trial, so these participants were not identified as suffering from mood disorders: “We wanted to start with a random group of people and see if music has the power to modulate emotional states.” level of their memories.”

It turns out that it is. The participants listened to movie soundtracks and incorporated new emotions into their memories that matched the mood of the music. And the effect was lasting. A day later, when the participants recalled the same memories -; but without musical accompaniment -; their emotional tone still matched the tone of the music played the day before.

The researchers were able to see all this happening with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). They could see the changed brain activity in the study participants, the increased connectivity between the amygdala, where emotions are processed, and other parts of the brain related to memory and integrating information.

“This sheds light on the malleability of memory in response to music, and the powerful role music can play in changing our existing memories,” says Ren.

Ren himself is a multi-instrumentalist who originally planned to become a professional musician. As a student at Boston University, she double majored in film production and sound design, and psychology.

She found a way to combine her interests in music and neuroscience and is interested in how music therapy can be designed to help people with mood disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression, “especially in cases where someone might exaggerate the negative consequences. ” components of a memory,” says Ren.

There’s no time machine that allows us to go back and throw happy music into the mix while a bad event happens and a memory is formed, “but we can revisit old memories while listening to affective music,” says Brown. “And maybe we can help people change their feelings and reshape the emotional tone associated with certain memories.”

Embracing the familiar

The second study asks some old questions: should we listen to music while we work or study? And if so, are there more useful types of music than others? The answer to both questions might lie, at least in part, within the expansive parameters of personal taste. But still there are limits.

Think back to my description of “Cantaloupe Island” at the beginning of this story and how a well-known old jazz standard helped keep this writer’s brain and fingers moving. Likewise, Norah Jones helps Ren as she works on new research around music and memory. But if for some reason I wanted to test my concentration, I would play a different kind of jazz, perhaps 1950s bebop with its frenetic pace and off-beat tone, or possibly a choir of screeching cats. Same effect. It would take up my attention, and no work would get done.

For this study, Ren combined her gifts as a musician and composer with her research interests to investigate whether music can improve -; or affect -; our ability to learn or remember new information. “We wanted to explore the potential of music as a mnemonic device that can help us remember information,” she says. (An example of a mnemonic is “Every Good Boy Does Fine,” which stands for EGBDF and helps new piano players learn the order of notes on a keyboard.)

The 48 participants in this study were asked to learn series of abstract shapes while listening to different types of music. Ren played a piece of music, in a traditional or familiar pattern of tone, rhythm, and melody. She then played the exact same series of notes, but in the wrong order, giving the piece an atonal structure.

When listening to familiar, predictable music, participants learned and remembered the series of shapes more quickly because their brains created a structured framework or scaffold for the new information. Meanwhile, music that was familiar but irregular (think this writer and the bebop example) made it harder for participants to learn.

“Depending on its familiarity and structure, music can help or hinder our memory,” says Ren, who wants to deepen her focus on the neural mechanisms by which music influences human behavior.

She plans to complete her Ph.D. graduates in December and is looking for postdoctoral research positions that will allow her to continue the work she started at Georgia Tech. Building on this, Ren aims to develop music-based therapies for conditions such as depression or PTSD, while also exploring new rehabilitation strategies for aging populations and people with dementia.

“These early studies show that music can both help or hinder our memory, depending on its familiarity and structure,” says Ren. “I am excited to bring together my lifelong love of music with my interest in human memory. Because I believe the next phase of my research could provide valuable evidence to support the development of music-based interventions for mental health and cognitive functions.”