Abstract
Recent research on music and brain function has suggested that the temporal pattern structure in music and rhythm can enhance cognitive functions. To further elucidate this question specifically for memory, we investigated if a musical template can enhance verbal learning in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and if music-assisted learning will also influence short-term, system-level brain plasticity. We measured systems-level brain activity with oscillatory network synchronization during music-assisted learning. Specifically, we measured the spectral power of 128-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) in alpha and beta frequency bands in 54 patients with MS. The study sample was randomly divided into two groups, either hearing a spoken or a musical (sung) presentation of Rey’s auditory verbal learning test. We defined the “learning-related synchronization” (LRS) as the percent change in EEG spectral power from the first time the word was presented to the average of the subsequent word encoding trials. LRS differed significantly between the music and the spoken conditions in low alpha and upper beta bands. Patients in the music condition showed overall better word memory and better word order memory and stronger bilateral frontal alpha LRS than patients in the spoken condition. The evidence suggests that a musical mnemonic recruits stronger oscillatory network synchronization in prefrontal areas in MS patients during word learning. It is suggested that the temporal structure implicit in musical stimuli enhances “deep encoding” during verbal learning and sharpens the timing of neural dynamics in brain networks degraded by demyelination in MS.
Highlights
The past two decades have seen an increasing awareness of cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS)
We investigated for the first time in persons with MS whether a musical template for verbal learning improves learning and memory and involves a different pattern of short-term, system-level brain plasticity measured as changes in oscillatory network synchronization
Musical verbal learning induced greater increase in word order recall in early and late phases of learning, whereas spoken verbal learning induced greatest increase in word order recall during the middle phase of learning
Summary
The past two decades have seen an increasing awareness of cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS). Many MS patients have cognitive deficits (Borghi et al, 2013; Rahn et al, 2012; Rogers and Panegyres, 2007; Amato et al, 2001; Gaudino et al, 2001; Kujala et al, 1996; Rao, 1990; Peyser et al, 1980). Cognitive impairments in MS were described already in the nineteenth century, not until 2001 standard tests were codified to measure cognitive function in MS (Rahn et al, 2012). As Rao (1995) has ardently noted for many years, is the lack of treatments for memory dysfunction in MS (Bennett et al, 1991)
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