With functional MRIs and other brain-imaging techniques, we discover that certain areas of the brain are used during short-term or long-term memory. Just as there is no "one" memory, there is no one area that 'deals' with memory.
In the case of music, our auditory memory involves listening, processing, storing and recalling sounds - in this case, music. Contrary to popular belief, it is not only the right hemisphere which is involved, but also the left. The temporal lobe also plays a major role in musical memory.
Listening to Mozart is pleasurable, but despite popular stories, there is no definitive proof of its benefits on memory. In fact, the one study responsible for the excitement was on college students who took the spatial recognition test and showed an improvement which lasted for less than 15 minutes. Attempts by other research institutions to repeat these findings have not been successful.
Labels: ageing brain, music, musical memory, temporal lobe, Whole Mind
