June 18, 2014

Tango rumpus for your hippocampus


Figure: Activity in an area (in red) within the hippocampus (in green)
 increased when musical motifs in the piece were repeated.

Hippocampal activity during music listening exposes the memory-boosting power of music

For the first time the hippocampus—a brain structure crucial for creating long-lasting memories—has been observed to be active in response to recurring musical phrases while listening to music. Thus, the hippocampal involvement in long-term memory may be less specific than previously thought, indicating that short and long-term memory processes may depend on each other after all.