Does music enhance memory? An electrical neuroimaging study

The aim of the present study was to investigate how auditory background can affect concurrent cognitive processes, and in particular memory for faces. Previous studies show that music listening alters the way in which we perceive the world. Reported effects of background music go toward both facilitatory and interfering consequences on concurrent cognitive tasks. An investigation using event related potentials (ERPs) was designed on to the evidence of a preliminary study, in order to investigate the neural mechanism of memory encoding for faces during listening to classical music (Čajkovskij), environmental sounds (rain) or silence. Participants were 15 healthy non-musician university students, engaged in an old/new memory task (involving the study of about 400 unknown faces, followed by a recognition phase). Faces were better recalled if learning occurred in silence or during listening to music, as compared to listening to rain. Results indicate that listening to music enhances memory recollection of faces. Listening to music led to a better encoding of the visual stimulus (as compared to listening to rain), as indexed by an increased Anterior Negativity. A swLORETA analysis showed the main involvement of Superior Temporal Gyrus (STG) in integrating audio-visual information at about 400-500 after stimulus onset. Only music listening activated the right inferior frontal gyrus, that might be involved in the processing of familiar musical pieces.