Recently, Professor Yao Dezhong's team of the School of Life Sciences and Technology of U Electronic Science and Technology and Professor Claude Alain team jointly published a research paper titled "Music training modulates theta brain oscillations associated with response suppression" in the JCR District 1 magazine "Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences", and was selected as the cover article. The Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Neurological Information Education of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China is the first author unit, and Associate Professor Lu Jing is the first author.
Can cognitive aging delay? Is there any simple and easy way to stay healthy and delay cognitive aging? Numerous studies in recent years have shown that reasonable diet, physical activities, bilingual learning, mindfulness training, gamified puzzle training, playing musical instruments or participating in choirs can all help the elderly maintain physical and cognitive health, but the brain mechanism behind the effectiveness of these methods needs to be further clarified. This study conducted a study on the intervention effect of music training on cognitive aging, and found that the elderly can improve their important cognitive ability of inhibition and control by regulating theta rhythm oscillation in the prefrontal brain region. At the same time, research also found that if you want to delay cognitive aging through music training, you cannot go back halfway. Only continuous training (i.e. regular "dosage") can maintain the benefits of music training.
This study recruited a group of healthy elderly subjects, divided into music group, painting group and control group. The music group and painting group were trained for 3 months for a intensive teaching course by professional music or art teachers, while the control group did not carry out training. Before and after training, each group used EEG devices and the classic GoNoGo cognitive paradigm to collect relevant data.
study found that, before training, theta and beta rhythm energy generated by NoGo trials in the prefrontal region of the brain was more significant, especially theta rhythm, which reflected the brain mechanisms in which executive control participation were involved (Figure 1). The rhythmic energy between Go and NoGo trials was further analyzed, and it was found that 3 months of music training significantly reduced the difference in the rhythmic energy between Go and NoGo trials, while there was no significant difference between the painting group and the control group (Figure 2). The above results show that theta rhythm oscillations in the prefrontal brain region may represent the encoding of "unexpected signals" (stronger theta oscillations represent more error-prone response inhibition), while the weakening of theta oscillations after music training reflects that music training reduces the occurrence of error-prone response inhibition (i.e., "surprising" reduction). Theta rhythm oscillation is a potential indicator that short-term music training may differ from other training mechanisms and can improve conflict detection and inhibitory control capabilities in older people.
Figure 1 Before training, the EEG time frequency characterization of the prefrontal brain area of all subjects
Figure 2 (A) The difference in the rhythm energy difference between Go and NoGo trials in each group before and after training; (B) The difference in the beta rhythm energy difference between Go and NoGo trials in each group before and after training
is to test how long the music training effect can last, and the three after concentrated training The same test was conducted on the same group of subjects in the month (during no training was conducted) and it was found that 3 months after the music training, the difference between NoGo and Go tests in the music group rebounded on theta rhythm oscillation when completing the GoNoGo task (Figure 3), indicating that the effect of previous music training on improving inhibitory control ability was weakened, indicating that the elderly need to continue training (i.e., regular "dose") to maintain the benefits of music training.
Figure 3 Go and NoGo trials of theta rhythm energy performance in the pre-training, post-training and 3 months after training (follow-up)
This study further conducted attention-based brain network analysis using phase-locking value from the perspective of brain network, revealing that the above-mentioned changes in the rhythm of theta rhythm are caused by changes in the connection between the prefrontal lobe and the perceptual area, which shows that music training can improve the executive control function of the elderly by adjusting the prefrontal lobe and audiovisual areas of the elderly (Figure 4).
Figure 4 Music group based on PLV attention network function connection.(A) Pay attention to brain network before training; (B) Pay attention to brain network after training; (C) Pay attention to brain network before training and post-training; (D) Pay attention to brain network 3 months after training
This study provides some evidence of brain mechanisms for music training to delay cognitive aging, which is expected to provide new strategies for early intervention in cognitive aging and even Alzheimer's disease.
This article is reproduced from [ University of Electronic Science and Technology ] official website
