Music can improve memory and change memories 🎶
Memories can be updated when recalled. During an experiment, 44 adult volunteers were asked to recall various emotional stories while lying in a tomography scanner. Happy and sad music played in the background. It was discovered that cheerful emotional music playing during memory reactivation helps ease the experience of difficult memories.
There has long been debate about whether listening to music while studying helps or hinders memory. Researchers asked 48 people aged 18 to 24 to memorize a series of abstract shapes while listening to either music with a clear rhythm, harmonious tone, and familiar melody, or atonal and irregular music.
Listening to familiar, well-structured music—which is more predictable—helped participants learn and recall the sequences of shapes more quickly, while irregular music significantly impaired memory encoding. This is explained by the brain creating "scaffolds," a structured foundation for newly acquired information.
#discoveries
@scientific