The short version
- The National Institute on Aging is funding a five-year randomized trial at Rice with 210 adults aged 65 and over who have mild cognitive impairment.
- Participants will compose original music, attend a music appreciation class, or listen at home for six weeks, so the trial can separate making from hearing.
- Outcomes include cognition, quality of life, brain imaging and blood markers of inflammation, with results years away.
Rice University announced on September 11 a $3.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of NIH, for a five-year randomized trial of music-making in older adults. The plan: 210 adults aged 65 and over with mild cognitive impairment, split three ways into a music composition course, a music appreciation class, or music listening at home, for six weeks with follow-up assessments. Composers Anthony Brandt and Karl Blench of Rice’s Shepherd School of Music designed the curriculum. Participants write original pieces with their voices and simple instruments, invent their own notation, and perform for family and friends.
The measurement side is unusually heavy for an arts study. Psychologists Christopher Fagundes and Bryan Denny at Rice lead the cognition and brain-imaging work; Luis Medina (University of Houston) directs neuropsychological testing; neurologist Paul Schulz (UTHealth Houston) oversees the clinical side; George Kypriotakis (MD Anderson) runs the statistics. Outcomes include cognition, mental-health-related quality of life, imaging of neural networks, and blood markers of inflammation and cellular energy metabolism. A 2018 pilot funded by the National Endowment for the Arts came first.
“For people at that stage of life to tackle something new, enjoy it, get satisfaction out of it, it’s very powerful to witness,” Brandt said.
First results are years away; the three-arm design, which can tell composing apart from merely listening, is why this trial is worth tracking.
