The short version
- The University of Maine is recruiting 48 older adults for a randomized study comparing 12 weeks of soprano recorder lessons with 12 weeks of music listening and appreciation.
- Half the participants will have normal cognition and half mild cognitive impairment, and both groups meet weekly.
- It is a feasibility study, so it will show whether a larger trial can run and not whether music protects memory.
The University of Maine announced on October 6 a randomized study that sets two kinds of musical activity against each other. Researchers are looking for 48 older adults, 24 with normal cognition and 24 with mild cognitive impairment. One group will learn the soprano recorder in weekly group lessons with practice at home. The other will meet weekly for music listening and appreciation and take home a digital music player. Each program lasts 12 weeks.
The team, led by psychologist Rebecca MacAulay with Philip Edelman of the School of Performing Arts and psychologist Shannon McCoy, will test memory, attention and cognitive control, the skill of dividing attention and shutting out distraction. They will also track social connection, emotional well-being, and how many people keep showing up. The National Institute on Aging is funding the work.
“We really expect that people could get benefits in both groups,” MacAulay said in the university’s announcement.
The comparison is the useful part. A study that tests playing against doing nothing cannot separate the music from the weekly outing and the company. Here both groups get the outing and the company. Only one has to learn fingerings.
With 48 people this is a feasibility study. Its main output is whether recruitment, attendance and testing work well enough to justify a larger trial. Rice University’s NIH-funded composing trial, which we covered at launch, is asking a related question.
