Effects of a 10-week keyboard harmonica training on cognitive function in healthy older adults

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that musical instrument training programs of 12 or more weeks improve the executive function and verbal memory of musically naïve healthy older adults. However, it is unclear whether shorter-period training can yield similar effects and if subtle improvement could be detected by new tasks.
Healthy older adults (≥ 60 years) were pseudo-randomly assigned to an untrained control group (n = 32) or an intervention group (n = 32) that received weekly 10-session melodica training program. We assessed executive function and verbal memory for comparison with the previous results, verbal working memory and rhythm entrainment through two reaction time tasks. We also assessed finger dexterity, depression, subjective memory complaints. A ‘group by time’ ANCOVA detected significant intervention effects on verbal fluency and reaction time in the working memory task, indicating improvements in healthy older adults’ verbal working memory following participation in the 10-week melodica training program.