No abstract

No abstract

With population aging and a projected exponential expansion of persons diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the development of treatment and prevention programs has become a fervent area of research and discovery. A growing body of evidence suggests that music exposure can enhance memory and emotional function in persons with AD. However, there is a paucity of research that aims to identify specific underlying neural mechanisms associated with music's beneficial effects in this particular population. As such, this paper reviews existing anecdotal and empirical evidence related to the enhancing effects of music exposure on cognitive function and further provides a discussion on the potential underlying mechanisms that may explain music's beneficial effect. Specifically, this paper will outline the potential role of the dopaminergic system, the autonomic nervous system, and the default network in explaining how music may enhance memory function in persons with AD.

49Background: Although cognition has been studied extensively among patients with schizophrenia, social cognition has only recently emerged as an area of interest. The objective of the current study was to use structural equation modelling to test the hypothesis that the relation between cognitive performance and social function is mediated by patients' social cognitive abilities. Methods: We assessed participants who met criteria for a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, with equal distribution among first-and multi-episode participants, and nonpsychiatric controls on a range of measures within each of the domains of cognition, social cognition and social function. Results: Using structural equation modelling, we derived a model that explained 79.7% of the variance in social function and demonstrated that the link between cognition and social function was fully mediated by social cognition. Limitations: A limitation of this study is that the measures contributing to the structural equation modelling analysis were obtained at the same point in time. Thus, the temporal order of causation suggested by Model 2 remains theoretically specified. Conclusion: This study provides some first steps in understanding the complex relation between cognition and social function. Such a relation has potential implications for the design of remediation strategies.