Music and Memory

Studies of MRI's have shown ties between music and memory. Music affects our memories in multiple ways. One of these is by being able to bring back memories and create a feeling of nostalgia. If you listen to a specific song between the ages of 12 and 22, you create a very strong connection to it. This is because our brain is developing extremely much these years. Because of this, hearing this song years later can create an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, and you will often be able to remember the lyrics and know exactly what part of the song is coming up. This is due to your brain being able to predict and anticipate peak musical moments.

According to Durham University, music is able to bring back memories of people, events and places. This is called music-evoked autobiographical memory and is very common. They are involuntary memories, sometimes of self-defining moments and often connect to music-evoked emotions and can therefore, also affect our mood.

Additionally, music has been shown to improve your overall memory and can help you learn new things, especially languages. According to ucf.edu, music also affects the hippocampus which is considered the main processing centre of the brain. It produces and retrieves memories and regulates emotional responses. When you listen to music neurogenesis increases, which allows production of new neurons, improving memory. There are also many repetitive elements of music, because of this there are many educational tools using music to help you learn new things, for example the alphabet song. You learn it when you're a child, and even years later can use it to remember the alphabet.

According to Futurecaregroup.com, when music is emotionally charged it activates the amygdala, one of the emotion centres of the brain, and it interacts with the hippocampus, this strengthens the retrieval of memories associated with the emotional parts of music.