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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging
Sec. Interventions in Aging
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fragi.2025.1513359
This article is part of the Research Topic Resilience in Aging View all 6 articles

Effects of group music sessions on cognitive and psychological functions in healthy older adults

Provisionally accepted
Takamitsu Shinada Takamitsu Shinada 1*Michio Takahashi Michio Takahashi 1Akari Uno Akari Uno 1Keishi Soga Keishi Soga 1Yasuyuki Taki Yasuyuki Taki 1,2
  • 1 Smart Ageing Research Center, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
  • 2 Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    With the rapid aging of the population worldwide and the prevalence of dementia and mental health problems among older adults, it is important to extend healthy life expectancy by maintaining brain and mental health. Playing musical instruments, which requires the integration of auditory, visual, and somatosensory functions, is considered an effective way to prevent the development of dementia. However, the effectiveness of group (band) music sessions in healthy older adults has not been investigated. Our purpose, therefore, was to investigate the effects of group music sessions on cognitive and psychological functions among healthy older adults. In this open-label randomized controlled trial, participants aged 65-74, who had no musical experience, were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. The intervention group received in weekly 90-minute sessions with the instrument for 16 weeks. The control group received no intervention. The results showed that the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) total score and the Wechsler Memory Scale Logical Memory Ⅱ (WMS-LM Ⅱ) score improved significantly, and the Vigor-Activity subscale score of the Profile of Mood States 2 nd Edition (POMS 2) tended to improve. These findings indicated that group music sessions have a potentially beneficial effect for maintaining and improving cognitive and psychological functions in healthy older adults.

    Keywords: Music, Session, Aging, Cognitive Function, mood

    Received: 18 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Shinada, Takahashi, Uno, Soga and Taki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Takamitsu Shinada, Smart Ageing Research Center, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8575, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.