Benefits of choir singing on complex auditory encoding in the aging brain: An ERP study

Pentikäinen, Emmi; Kimppa, Lilli; Makkonen, Tommi; Putkonen, Mikko; Pitkäniemi, Anni; Salakka, Ilja; Paavilainen, Petri; Tervaniemi, Mari; Särkämö, Teppo

doi:10.1111/nyas.14789

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…In this study, our aim was to determine whether regular choir singing can have long-term benefits on cognitive, emotional, and social functioning in healthy older adults. Previous studies in older adults have identified benefits of group singing on various aspects of wellbeing, including cognition, physical health, mood, social wellbeing, and QOL ( Johnson et al, 2013 , 2020 ; Coulton et al, 2015 ; Fu et al, 2018 ; Pentikäinen et al, 2021 , 2022 ). Critically, however, evidence from longer-term follow-up periods is still lacking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal effects of choir singing on aging cognition and wellbeing: a two-year follow-up study

Pentikäinen

Kimppa

Pitkäniemi

et al. 2023

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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IntroductionWhile increasing evidence points toward the benefits of musical activities in promoting cognitive and emotional well-being in older adults, more longitudinal studies are needed to establish their long-term effects and uncover the mechanisms through which musical activities affect well-being. Most previous research has focused on instrumental musical activities, but little is currently known about the long-term effects of singing, even though neuroimaging evidence suggests that it is a versatile activity for the brain, involving a multitude of neural processes that are potentially beneficial for well-being.MethodsWe conducted a 2-year follow-up study to assess aging-related changes in cognitive functioning and emotional and social well-being with self-report questionnaires and standardized tests in 107 older adult choir singers and 62 demographically matched non-singers. Data were collected at baseline (T1), and at 1-year (T2) and 2-year (T3) follow-ups using questionnaires on subjective cognitive functioning, depression, social engagement, and quality of life (QOL) in all participants and neuropsychological tests in a subgroup of participants (45 choir singers and 41 non-singers).ResultsThe results of linear mixed model analysis showed that in verbal flexibility (phonemic fluency task), the choir singers had higher scores already at T1 and showed no change over time, whereas the non-singers showed enhancement from T1 to T3. Furthermore, active retrieval of word knowledge (WAIS-IV Vocabulary task) showed significantly different changes from T1 to T2 between the groups (enhancement in choir singers and decline in non-singers), however lacking significant change within groups. Similar opposite trajectories of QOL related to social inclusion and safety of the environment (WHOQOL-Bref Environmental subscale) were significant from T1 to T3, but these changes were not significant within groups or at each timepoint. Within the choir singers, shorter experience in choir singing was associated with greater improvement in the vocabulary task over the follow-up period, suggesting that initiation of choir singing at older age induces some verbal benefits. There were no group differences in any other questionnaire or neuropsychological measure over time.DiscussionIn conclusion, our results suggest that choir singing at older age is associated with a sustained enhancement of phonemic fluency, while the effects on other verbal skills and quality of life are less clear.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal effects of choir singing on aging cognition and wellbeing: a two-year follow-up study

Pentikäinen

Kimppa

Pitkäniemi

et al. 2023

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…One study was able to show that playing the cello makes use of some of the same neuronal networks as singing, such as Heschl’s gyrus, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex ( Segado et al, 2018 ). In an auditory event-related potentials (ERP) study, healthy choir singers and nonsinger controls aged over 60 years were investigated when listening passively to sounds ( Pentikäinen et al, 2022 ). The authors used two simple oddball conditions, in which the pitch or spatial location of the sounds was varied, and a complex oddball condition involving encoding of abstract regularities in combinations of both pitch and location features.…”

Section: Neural Mechanisms Of Choral Singingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the N1 ERP component reflects automatic stimulus processing and MMN is an indicator of stimulus change or of a neural-mismatch process triggered by a rare deviant stimulus at the presence of a neural trace of the frequent standard stimulus ( cf. Mueller et al, 2008 ), the authors concluded that regular choir singing is associated with both more effective adaptation to simple sound features and more enhanced encoding of complex auditory regularities ( Pentikäinen et al, 2022 ). A study that may provide insight into the special case of choral singing investigated the role of laypeople’s ability to sing and to move to the beat of a rhythmic stimulus ( Dalla Bella et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Neural Mechanisms Of Choral Singingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpersonal synchrony when singing in a choir

Delius

Müller

2023

Front. Psychol.

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Singing in a choir has long been known to enhance well-being and protect mental health. Clearly, the experience of a uniquely harmonious social activity is very satisfying for the singers. How might this come about? One of the important factors positively associated with well-being is interpersonal action coordination allowing the choir to function as a whole. This review focuses on temporal coordination dynamics of physiological systems and/or subsystems forming part or the core of the functional substrate of choir singing. These coordination dynamics will be evaluated with respect to the concept of a superordinate system, or superorganism, based on the principles of self-organization and circular causality. We conclude that choral singing is a dynamic process requiring tight interpersonal action coordination that is characterized by coupled physiological systems and specific network topology dynamics, representing a potent biomarker for social interaction.

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“…Furthermore, MIT, a singing-based intervention for treating nonfluent aphasia, has been shown to improve connected speech, naming, and repetition ( Sparks et al, 1974 ; Van Der Meulen et al, 2014 ; Zumbansen et al, 2014 ) and linking the positive effects to temporal and frontal speech motor areas, either in the left ( Belin et al, 1996 ; Breier et al, 2011 ) or right ( Schlaug et al, 2008 ; Wan et al, 2014 ; Tabei et al, 2016 ) hemisphere. In the healthy older adults, regular singing has recently been linked to enhanced executive function ( Pentikäinen et al, 2021 ; Vetere et al, 2024 ), frontotemporal auditory functioning ( Pentikäinen et al, 2022 ), structural connectivity ( Perron et al, 2021 ), and structural plasticity in auditory and dorsal speech regions ( Perron et al, 2022 ), suggesting that it may have neuroprotective effects in aging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural Neuroplasticity Effects of Singing in Chronic Aphasia

Sihvonen,

Pitkäniemi,

Siponkoski

et al. 2024

eNeuro

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Singing-based treatments of aphasia can improve language outcomes, but the neural benefits of group-based singing in aphasia are unknown. Here, we set out to determine the structural neuroplasticity changes underpinning group-based singing induced treatment effects in chronic aphasia. Twenty-eight patients with at least mild nonfluent post-stroke aphasia were randomized into two groups that received a 4-month multicomponent singing intervention (singing group) or standard care control group). High-resolution T1-images and multi-shell diffusion-weighted MRI data were collected in two time points (baseline / 5-month). Structural grey and white matter neuroplasticity changes were assessed using language network region-of-interest based voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and quantitative anisotropy based connectometry, and their associations to improved language outcomes (WAB Naming and Repetition) were evaluated. Connectometry analyses showed that the singing group enhanced structural white matter connectivity in the left arcuate fasciculus and corpus callosum as well as in the frontal aslant tract, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and corticostriatal tract bilaterally compared to the control group. Moreover, in VBM, the singing group showed grey matter volume increase in the left inferior frontal cortex (BA44) compared to the control group. The neuroplasticity effects in the left BA44, arcuate fasciculus, and frontal aslant tract correlated with improved naming abilities after the intervention. These findings suggest that in post-stroke aphasia group singing can bring about structural neuroplasticity changes in left frontal language areas and in bilateral language pathways, which underpin treatment-induced improvement in speech production.Significance StatementUnderstanding the neural underpinnings of improved language outcomes in aphasia is vital. We utilize longitudinal neuroplasticity measures of both grey and white matter and evaluate their contribution to group-based singing treatment effects in chronic aphasia. The results show that singing intervention induced grey and white matter neuroplasticity changes in the left frontal language-related structures, but also in the right hemisphere (white matter), correlating with improved naming abilities. These results shine light on treatment-induced structural changes in chronic aphasia and improve our understanding of aphasia rehabilitation.

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Benefits of choir singing on complex auditory encoding in the aging brain: An ERP study

Cited by 7 publications

References 83 publications

Longitudinal effects of choir singing on aging cognition and wellbeing: a two-year follow-up study

Longitudinal effects of choir singing on aging cognition and wellbeing: a two-year follow-up study

Interpersonal synchrony when singing in a choir

Structural Neuroplasticity Effects of Singing in Chronic Aphasia

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