From: 23x11.5c@gmail.com   
      
   Memories lost to Alzheimer's disease are recovered through music   
   Research Conducted By UC Davis Professor Geared To Increase Quality Of Life   
   For People Suffering From Alzheimer's   
      
   Written By By DANIELLA TUTINO -- City@Theaggie.Org   
   Published On November 25, 2014   
   Filed Under Breaking News, City News, Top Stories   
      
      
      
   In recognition of Alzheimer's Disease Awareness month Dr. Petr Janata, UC   
   Davis professor and researcher in the department of psychology and the Center   
   for the Mind and Brain, visited Carlton Plaza, a senior home in Davis, to   
   present his ongoing research    
   of the relationship between music and memories.   
      
   The association of music and memories is not exactly a new concept. Imagine   
   driving to work and you just happen to be listening passively to the radio   
   when all of a sudden the song sucks you into the memory of a nasty breakup or   
   maybe your first kiss.   
      
   Dr. Joel Krueger, UC Davis alumnus and philosophy lecturer at the University   
   of Exeter in the United Kingdom, explained in an email interview that he has   
   been working on a number of issues in philosophy of the mind and cognitive   
   science, philosophy of    
   music and Asian and comparative philosophy.   
      
   "When we remember a past event , we're not simply summoning an inventory of   
   'cold' facts," Dr. Krueger said, "we are also summoning an 'affective frame'."   
   This affective frame, according to Dr. Krueger, can be defined as an   
   "emotional coloring" that    
   shapes how people remember.   
      
   He also explains that emotions are often associated with music because it   
   plays a significant role in establishing the affective frame of an experience.   
      
   "Hearing a certain tune later in life can immediately bring back various   
   feelings that are part of the content of a given memory," he said.   
      
   For example, when Dr. Krueger hears "Red, Red Wine" by UB40, he says he is   
   reminded of his high school dance during his freshman year when he danced with   
   his crush. He explains that not only does he remember the time and place, but   
   also a varied mix of    
   feelings. He lists "nervousness, giddiness, elation, self-consciousness, fear,   
   etc."   
      
   This relationship of music and memories even spreads into the theater world.   
   In the late 1800s, Constantin Stanislavski, Russian stage actor and director,   
   harnessed the effects of the association of music and memories into a method   
   to achieve a natural    
   and believable performance. It was a facet of what is known as "sense memory"   
   -- one of the five components of his method.   
      
   Sense memory, for actors, is one of the "tools in their toolkit," as Dr. Bella   
   Merlin described, that allows them to get into character by way of calling   
   upon emotions affiliated with memories from their past.   
      
   Dr. Merlin, a former UC Davis professor in the Theatre & Dance department, now   
   teaches in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production at UC   
   Riverside. She is also a practicing actor, director and author with a number   
   of books including one on    
   the "psychophysical" approach to acting.   
      
   According to Merlin, humans use sense memory all the time by basing every   
   decision on the five senses.   
      
   It is not the fact that memories can resurface in result of a certain song,   
   but rather the "how" and the "why" that interests Dr. Janata and his team of   
   researchers.   
      
   They began studying  music's ability to evoke autobiographical memories back   
   in 2009. Their initial sample was comprised of college students. The   
   researchers mapped the area of activity in the brain while having the subjects   
   listen to 30-second excerpts    
   of music that would hopefully trigger a memory. This all occurred while the   
   subjects' brain activity was recorded by using fMRI (functional magnetic   
   resonance imaging). Music was chosen randomly from the top 100 charts from   
   when the subjects were 7-19    
   years old. After each excerpt, the subjects would then answer a series of   
   questions such as: Was the song familiar? Did you enjoy it? Did the song   
   remind you of a particular event/person/place/object?   
      
   Through the interview process, it became clear to Dr. Janata that the memories   
   began to take on the form of a story or autobiography. Below are some of the   
   responses from certain songs that were played during the tests. We can easily   
   see that music can    
   provoke positive or sentimental memories as well as negative memories.   
      
   ''One Call Away'' by Chingy & Jason Weaver   
      
   ''I was in junior high.''   
      
   "Heaven'' by Nu Flavor   
      
   "I was not quite 18 yet and my boyfriend seemed like everything for me in this   
   world, I hadn't gone to college yet, so he was all I knew.''   
      
   ''You Don't Know My Name'' by Alicia Keys   
      
   ''I was young and crazy and I was so in love, so   
      
   in love.''   
      
   ''Pieces of Me'' by Ashlee Simpson   
      
   ''I was finishing high school starting college away from   
      
   my boyfriend we talked on the phone a lot.''   
      
   ''Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)'' by Blu Cantrell   
      
   ''I was beginning to mature, no longer innocent   
      
   I realized guys are all the same cheating, dogs,   
      
   and bastards.''   
      
   During the presentation last Wednesday, Dr. Janata played an excerpt of "The   
   Girl from Ipanema" by A.C. Jobin for the audience. When he asked if any   
   memories were evoked by the song, almost all of the spectators nodded their   
   heads yes.   
      
   In any case, memories can be evoked by a specific song, a familiar chord in an   
   unfamiliar song, and/or the moral of the lyrics. It only matters that the   
   memory comes forward.   
      
   During the Q&A portion of last Wednesday's event, an audience member asked,   
   "Can a song only trigger a memory once?" To which Dr. Janata replied that in   
   his research he has been careful to stay clear of playing the same song to the   
   same subject twice due    
   to his fear of only causing the subject to remember having to listen to the   
   song for research purposes and regurgitate the same response from before.   
      
   Photo courtesy of Petr Janata   
   Photo courtesy of Petr Janata   
      
   Dr. Janata's next discovery was that you could see in the brain which memories   
   that surfaced were more vivid than others.   
      
   Approaching this area of study, Dr. Janata's hypothesis stated, "Music,   
   memories, and emotions are linked in the medial prefrontal cortex." He was   
   correct.   
      
   The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is the area of the brain located behind   
   the forehead. Coincidentally, it is one of the last parts of the brain to   
   atrophy due to Alzheimer's.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)