Lifetime musical experience and healthy ageing

从童谣到乐队演奏或退休后加入合唱团，我们的生活被音乐打断。对我们许多人来说，这些都是改善生活的经历，但制作或听音乐是否也能帮助我们应对与衰老有关的挑战呢？作为全球人口，我们正在迅速老龄化。这一趋势带来了许多挑战，因为人们在老年时往往健康状况较差，记忆力和思维能力下降。听音乐和音乐创作是独特的脑力要求任务，涉及不同心理过程的组合，包括注意力、情感、记忆，在演奏乐器的情况下，身体协调和技能。以前的研究发现，演奏乐器对儿童的认知或语言发展有好处，对成人的认知功能测试也有好处。大脑结构的神经成像研究表明，音乐训练与大脑的某些差异有关。此外，其他研究也记录了各种形式的音乐体验对心理的好处，包括演奏乐器、唱歌和听音乐。关于音乐体验和老年结果之间的潜在联系，人们知之甚少。特别是，尚不清楚音乐体验是否与老年认知功能、大脑结构或心理健康的变化有关。拟议项目的目的是研究这些潜在的联系。我将使用1936年洛锡安出生队列研究（LBC1936）的数据来检验音乐体验与健康老龄化之间的联系。从70岁开始，每三年，LBC1936的参与者都要完成一项极其详细的思维和记忆测试。参与者接受了多次脑部核磁共振扫描，并提供了广泛的健康、人口、心理和生活方式数据。重要的是，这些参与者也可以获得童年认知能力的测量。在最新一轮研究中，参与者在82岁时完成了一份终身音乐体验问卷。问卷提供了一个详细的回溯性的终生乐器训练和实践的记录。它还评估了终身音乐体验的其他方面，包括唱歌和音乐聆听。使用这些数据，我将解决以下未解决的问题：1)拥有高水平终身音乐体验的人的人口统计学、健康和童年认知特征是什么？这项工作将有助于确定音乐体验和健康老龄化之间的联系是否可能是因果关系，或者仅仅是影响音乐体验和老龄化结果的另一个因素（例如社会经济地位）的副产品。2)演奏乐器的经历是否与终生认知变化有关？儿童时期的认知功能是老年认知功能的主要预测因素之一，在这项研究中，我将测试那些有更多乐器演奏经验的人在70岁时的认知能力是否比他们在11岁时的认知能力更高。3)演奏乐器的经验是否与老年认知能力或大脑结构的水平或变化有关？4)演奏乐器、唱歌或听音乐的经历是否与老年人心理健康水平或变化有关？在测试这些问题时，我将对第一项研究中确定的因素进行统计控制，这些因素可能会解释音乐体验与老年人的认知、大脑或心理健康之间的联系。我的研究结果可以为确定音乐经验——尤其是演奏乐器的经验——是否对老年人有益奠定基础。

From nursery rhymes to playing in a band or joining a choir in retirement, our lives are punctuated by music. These are life-enhancing experiences for many of us, but could making or listening to music also help us tackle challenges related to ageing? As a global population, we are aging rapidly. This trend brings many challenges, as people often suffer from poorer health and declining memory and thinking skills in older age. Listening to music and music making are unique mentally demanding tasks which involve the combination of different mental processes including attention, emotion, memory, and in the case of playing a musical instrument, physical coordination and skill. Findings from previous studies have documented the benefits of playing a musical instrument in terms of better cognitive or language development in children and improved performance on tests of cognitive function in adults. Neuroimaging studies of brain structure indicate that musical training is associated with certain brain differences. In addition, other studies have documented the psychological benefits of various forms of musical experience including playing an instrument, singing and listening to music. Less is known regarding the potential association between musical experience and outcomes in older age. In particular, it is unclear whether musical experience is related to changes in cognitive function, brain structure or psychological wellbeing in older age. The aim of the proposed project is to examine these potential associations. I will examine associations between musical experience and healthy ageing using data from the Lothian Birth Cohort study 1936 (LBC1936). Every three years, since the age of 70, LBC1936 participants have completed an extremely detailed battery of thinking and memory tests. Participants have had multiple brain MRI scans and provided extensive health, demographic, psychological and lifestyle data. Importantly, a measure of cognitive ability in childhood is also available for these participants. At the most recent wave of the study, at age 82, participants completed a lifetime musical experience questionnaire. The questionnaire provides a detailed retrospective account of lifetime musical instrument training and practice. It also assesses other aspects of lifetime musical experience including singing and music listening.Using these data, I will address the following unresolved questions: 1) what are the demographic, health, and childhood cognitive characteristics of people with high levels of lifetime musical experience? This work will help establish whether the association between musical experience and healthy ageing might be causal, or simply a by-product of another factor which influences both musical experience and ageing outcomes (e.g. socioeconomic status). 2) Is experience playing a musical instrument related to lifetime cognitive change? Cognitive function in childhood is one of the main predictors of cognitive function in older age, in this study I will test if people with more experience playing a musical instrument tend to have higher cognitive abilities at age 70 than would be expected given their cognitive ability at age 11. 3) Is experience playing a musical instrument related to level or change in cognitive ability or brain structure in older age? 4) Is experience playing a musical instrument, singing or music listening related to level or change in psychological wellbeing in older age? In testing these questions, I will statistically control for the factors, identified in the first study, which might account for associations between musical experience and cognitive, brain or psychological health in older age. My results could lay the groundwork for establishing whether musical experience - and experience playing a musical instrument in particular - is beneficial for older people.