An fMRI Study of Music Listening for Mild Cognitive Impairment: Effects of Liking, Familiarity, and Self-Selection

Poster Session E - Monday, April 15, 2024, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Xiaotong (Eva) Wu¹, Corinna Parrish¹, Laine Koenig¹, Jakob Laats¹, Milena Quinci¹, Alex Belden¹, Psyche Loui¹; ¹Northeastern University

Music-based interventions for healthy aging rely on the idea that listening to pleasurable music engages auditory and reward systems; however, this result has not yet been observed in cognitively impaired older adults. Here we tested older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in a music listening fMRI task. Twelve older adults (aged 54-87), who scored 0.5 or above on the Clinical Dementia Rating scale, listened to self-selected and researcher-selected musical excerpts and rated them on a four-point liking and familiarity scale during fMRI. Main effects of listening showed activation in auditory network including Heschl’s Gyrus (HG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG). Self-selected music and music rated as “loved” and “very familiar” additionally activated hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, and medial prefrontal cortex. A self>other-selected music contrast showed significant effects in HG, STG, planum temporale, and right planum polare, as well as posterior cingulate, amygdala, and right temporal pole. Contrasting loved>hated music showed significant effects in the aforementioned auditory regions, motor regions (bilateral precentral gyri), and default mode network (paracingulate gyrus, precuneus). Linear contrast of familiarity ratings showed significant effects in the auditory network including bilateral STG, right middle temporal gyrus, and left planum polare, and regions important for memory including left parahippocampal gyrus, left temporal pole, and right orbitofrontal cortex. Results suggest that preferred and familiar music engages memory and emotion processing systems, and extend previously-observed effects of music listening towards MCI, thus serving as a baseline for music-based interventions in this population.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition