Following the Sound of Music

Comparing the Effects of Music vs. Non-Music Based Interventions on Auditory and Cognitive Processing in Older Adults

The proposed study will enroll healthy older adult participants to examine the effectiveness of music listening activities to promote hearing and cognition. Participants will be randomized into one of four experimental groups and can expect to participate for up to 21 hours of research distributed over 20 weeks.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age: 60+
• No self-reported auditory difficulties and normal or near-normal hearing sensitivity as measured by SRTs.
• Should have no more than typical hearing loss for their age and no evidence of dementia.
• Fluent in English and/or Spanish
• No more than two years of formal music training in childhood OR in the past 20 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Abnormal vision or hearing prohibitive of training
• History of seizures, focal brain lesion, or head injury with loss of consciousness
• Physical handicap (motor or perceptual) that would impede training procedures
• Social, educational or economic hardship prohibitive to training schedule Concurrent enrollment in other cognitive training studies
• History of major psychiatric illness, including psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression, alcohol or substance abuse, recent bereavement
• Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15) score of 6 or higher, indicating clinically significant depressive symptoms
• Not being proficient enough in English or Spanish that would prevent following and understanding all instructions and completing all testing sessions
• Diagnosis of dementia or other neurological disease, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
• Telephone-Montreal Cognitive Assessment (t-MoCA) score of 16 or less