Lifelong musical activity is associated with multi-domain cognitive and brain benefits in older adults

Adriana Böttcher; Alexis Zarucha; Theresa Köbe; Malo Gaubert; Angela Höppner; Klaus Fabel; Slawek Altenstein; Claudia Bartels; Katharina Buerger; Peter Dechent; Laura Dobisch; Michael Ewers; Klaus Fliessbach; Silka Dawn Freiesleben; Ingo Frommann; John Dylan Haynes; Daniel Janowitz; Ingo Kilimann; Luca Kleineidam; Christoph Laske; Franziska Maier; Coraline Metzger; Matthias Munk; Robert Perneczky; Oliver Peters; Josef Priller; Boris-Stephan Rauchmann; Nina Roy; Klaus Scheffler; Anja Schneider; Annika Spottke; Stefan J. Teipel; Jens Wiltfang; Steffen Wolfsgruber; Renat Yakupov; Emrah Duzel; Frank Jessen; Sandra Röske; Michael Wagner; Gerd Kempermann; Miranka Wirth; for the DELCODE study group

doi:10.1101/2021.09.15.460202

1 Abstract

Regular musical activity as a highly-stimulating lifestyle activity is proposed to be protective against age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study investigated associations between lifelong regular musical instrument playing, late-life cognitive abilities and brain morphology in older adults. We show that musical activity over the life course is associated with better global cognition, working memory, executive functions, language, and visuospatial abilities accounting for reserve proxies. Playing music is not significantly associated with gray matter volume in regions most affected by aging and AD. Selectively in the musically active participants, multi-domain cognitive abilities were enhanced with preserved gray matter volume in frontal and temporal regions. Our correlational findings suggest that playing a musical instrument may improve the recruitment of existing brain resources to facilitate late-life cognitive capacities. We propose that engaging in regular musical activity could serve as a low-threshold multimodal enrichment strategy that may promote cognitive resilience in advanced age.

Competing Interest Statement

O. Peters received fees for consultation from Abbvie, Biogen, Eisai, Griffols, MSD Roche, and Schwabe. J. Priller received fees for consultation, lectures, and patents from Neurimmune, Axon, Desitin, and Epomedics. J. Wiltfang is an advisory board member of Abbott, Biogen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Immunogenetics, Lilly, MSD Sharp & Dohme, and Roche Pharma and received honoraria for lectures from Actelion, Amgen, Beeijing Yibai Science and Technology Ltd., Janssen Cilag, Med Update GmbH, Pfizer, Roche Pharma and holds the following patents: PCT/EP 2011 001724 and PCT/EP 2015 052945. J. Wiltfang is supported by an Ilidio Pinho professorship, iBiMED (UIDB/04501/2020) at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. E. Duzel received fees for consultation from Roche, Biogen, RoxHealth and holds shares in neotiv. F. Jessen received fees for consultation from Eli Lilly, Novartis, Roche, BioGene, MSD, Piramal, Janssen, and Lundbeck. The remaining authors report no disclosures relevant to the manuscript.

Footnotes

↵# The members of the DELCODE study group are listed in the acknowledgments.

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