Adults who practiced a beginner form of yoga called Kirtan Kriya or who listened to relaxing instrumental music every day for three months had improved memory and cognitive performance six months later, according to a study published in the January edition of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
To determine how music and meditation affect brain health, researchers enrolled 60 adults who were between 50 and 84 years old and had subjective cognitive decline (SCD), which is not dementia but is linked with an increased risk of developing dementia. They randomly assigned 30 adults to practice Kirtan Kriya, a type of yoga meditation that engages many senses and several areas of the brain, and 30 to listen to relaxing classical music.
All 60 participants initially met with a trainer for a 30- to 40-minute onsite training program then practiced Kirtan Kriya or listened to music for 12 minutes a day for 12 weeks at home by themselves. All 60 participants were given a CD, CD player, and reference guide.
During each yoga session, participants performed a Kirtan, a repeated chanting of the syllables 'Sa-Ta-Na-Ma,' while listening to a meditation CD. While chanting, they touched each fingertip to the thumb in sequence with the syllables and visualized sound energy entering their head and resting between the eyebrows. The people in the music group listened to relaxing classical music from six different composers.
To determine participants' cognitive status at the beginning of the study, at the end of the three-month practice period, and again three months later, the researchers administered a variety of tests, including the Memory Function Questionnaire, the Wechsler Digit-Symbol Substitution Test, and the Trail Making Test, all of which ask people to perform small tasks in order to measure symptoms of cognitive decline.
Participants in both the music and the meditation group not only did not decline on the cognitive tests, but had significant improvements in their memory and cognitive functioning at three months. Even better, these gains were either sustained or further improved at six months. The number of participants who were defined as being at risk of dementia at the beginning of the study declined significantly over time in both groups.
The results, the researchers concluded, suggest that music and meditation may be great ways to boost memory and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. The researchers noted that almost 90 percent of study participants completed all 84 daily sessions, indicating that it was likely easy and enjoyable to integrate music and meditation into daily life.
To learn how listening to familiar music can benefit people with Alzheimer's disease, read our story, "The Sound of Music."