Effects of accelerated human music on learning and memory performance of rats

Abstract

A total of forty, 7-week-old male rats were exposed to the ‘rodentized’ version (twice as fast as and one octave higher than the original) of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major for ten minutes a day for 10 weeks. One group (10 rats) received the musical stimuli before (‘B’), another during (‘D’) and the third before and during (‘BD’) the memory test, while the ten control (‘C’) animals were kept in silence. The animals’ spatial learning and memory ability was tested in an 8-arm radial maze. Rats exposed to the music showed a significant (7.1%) improvement in task acquisition (Group BD), but it did not practically change in Group D and worsened by 10.5% in Group B. The 2-h working memory significantly improved by 12.1% (BD) while practically did not change in Groups B and D. The reference memory improved by 11.9% in Group BD, but did not change in Group B and D, compared to the Control. The performance of the groups during the 4-h working memory test did not differ significantly. During the long-term test period the spatial memory performance of the music-exposed rats did not show significant differences compared to the Control (Table 1). At the same time, most results obtained in the long-term period were better than the corresponding short-term data. In conclusion, this particular piece of music, falling within the rats’ hearing range, was suitable for improving hippocampus-dependent spatial learning capacity, but only if the animals were exposed to it not only before but also during the task.