Remembering the Way We Were: Using Active and Passive Listening Therapy to Retain Memory

Abstract

It is a well-known and well-studied fact that memories are often triggered by music that has been associated with life events. The music of our life is personal to each person, and in adults with dementia or memory loss, music can serve as a catalyst to memory retrieval. The objectives of this proposed research are to: 1) summarize how music forms associations with our memories of life events, and how/where the memories of both long-term or short-term associations are assembled and stored in the brain and 2) investigate whether memory recall is more effective with passive/receptive or active music therapy. My hypothesis is that although active music therapy may be more effective than passive/receptive music therapy, either therapy contains only the hope of extending memory for a longer time before it is lost in the disease of dementia when comparing with the memory declines of ones without receiving any music therapy. I will review peer-reviewed journal articles and published literatures to support the arguments in examining the proposed hypothesis, and suggest further studies to advance in this research.