Novelty exposure modulates visual and verbal emotional memory: An experimental design with adults.

The detection and processing of novelty play a critical role in memory formation. The effect of novelty intervention in memory has been demonstrated with rodents in several lines of research; however, it has not been explored as extensively in humans. In this research, we evaluated the effect of novelty exposure on two types of emotional memory: visual (Study 1) and verbal (Study 2). Eighty healthy volunteers participated in both studies. First, all participants watched a video (session 1); seven days later (session 2), participants in the control group watched the same video and those in the experimental condition were exposed to a novel one. Immediately after exposure, all participants looked at 36 pictures (or listened to 36 words). Soon afterward, a two-task test was administered to evaluate memory (immediate free recall and recognition). A week later (session 3), the two-task test was run again (deferred free recall and recognition). Regarding emotional memory processing, the emotional information was more activating and better remembered than the neutral one, for both visual and verbal information. Regarding the novelty effect, the participants exposed to the novel video had better recall than the control on the deferred measures. Thus, our results provide evidence of the effect of novelty exposure on two different types of emotional memory, with great potentialities in clinical and educational settings.

Benefits of Music Therapy in the Quality of Life of Older Adults / Beneficios de la musicoterapia en la calidad de vida de los adultos mayores / Beneficios da musicoterapia na qualidade de vida dos idosos

Abstract Introduction: Aging is a complex, universal and irreversible process, with gradual changes that fluctu-ate from one person to another due to several factors (physiological, biological, environmental, social etc.). There are precedents for the potential effect of music therapy on psychological and social aspects which are characteristic of the elderly. In this sense, the aim of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of music therapy in improving the quality of life of older adults. Materials and Methods: A quality of life inventory was administered, comparing a group that attended a music therapy stimulation and a control group that did not have this type of stimulus. Results: Music therapy attendees had higher scores in terms of total quality of life and subcomponents of the inventory (religion, creativity, recreation and love). Conclusión: The music therapy approach, with its non-invasive techniques, presents a proposal with potential benefits to improve the quality of life of the elderly.

Resumen Introducción: El envejecimiento es un proceso complejo, universal e irreversible, con cambios graduales que fluctúan de un individuo a otro por diversos factores (fisiológicos, biológicos, ambientales, sociales, etc.). Existen antecedentes del efecto potencial de la musicoterapia sobre aspectos psicológicos y sociales característicos de las personas de la tercera edad. En ese sentido, el objetivo del presente trabajo es evaluar la eficacia de la musicoterapia para mejorar la calidad de vida de los adultos mayores. Materiales y métodos: Se administró un inventario de calidad de vida, comparando un grupo que asistía a un taller de musicoterapia y un grupo control que no tenía este tipo de estimulación. Resultados: Los asistentes a musicoterapia presentaron mayores puntajes en lo que refiere a la calidad de vida total y en subcomponentes del inventario (religión, creatividad, recreación y amor). Conclusión: El abordaje musicoterapéutico, con sus técnicas no invasivas, presenta una propuesta con potenciales beneficios para mejorar la calidad de vida de los adultos mayores.

Resumo Introdução: O envelhecimento é um processo complexo, universal e irreversível, com mudanças graduais que flutuam de um indivíduo a outro por diversos fatores (fisiológicos, biológicos, ambientais, sociais, etc.). Existem antecedentes do efeito potencial da musicoterapia sobre aspetos psicológicos e sociais característicos das pessoas idosas. Neste sentido, o objetivo do presente trabalho é avaliar a eficácia da musicoterapia para melhorar a qualidade de vida dos idosos. Materiais e métodos: Se administrou um inventário de qualidade de vida, comparando um grupo que assistia a um curso de musicoterapia e um grupo controle que não tinha este tipo de estimulação. Resultados: Os assistentes à musicoterapia apresentaram maiores pontuações no que refere à qualidade de vida total e em subcomponentes do inventário (religião, criatividade, recreação e amor). Conclusão: A abordagem musico-terapêutica, com suas técnicas não invasivas, apresenta uma proposta com potenciais benefícios para melhorar a qualidade de vida dos idosos.

Procesamiento musical y modulación de la memoria emocional en Demencia Tipo Alzheimer / Musical processing and emotional memory modulation in Alzheimer's Disease

Los estímulos que contienen alto contenido emocional son mejor recordados por sujetos sanos que los estímulos neutros. La música actúa como modulador de la memoria emocional en sujetos músicos y no músicos. El papel que juega en patologías neurodegenerativas, como lo es la demencia tipo Alzheimer, ha sido poco estudiado. Algunos estudios sugieren que la capacidad musical se encuentra deteriorada en este tipo de pacientes, con lo cual, ésta parecería ser irrelevante a la hora de considerar las emociones que la música despierta en ellos. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo realizar una revisión bibliográfica acerca de la modulación de la memoria emocional a través de la música en sujetos sin patología y pacientes con demencia, así como también de las habilidades, tanto emocionales como musicales, conservadas y deterioradas en pacientes con esta patología.

Healthy subjects remember high emotional stimuli better than neutral stimuli. Music acts as a modulator of emotional memory in musicians and non-musicians. The role it plays in neurodegenerative pathologies, such as Alzheimer\'s disease, has been scarcely studied. Some studies suggest that musical ability is impaired in this type of patients, which would seem to be irrelevant when considering the emotions that music arouses in them. The aim of the present study is to review the literature about the modulation of emotional memory through music in subjects without pathology and patients with dementia, as well as the emotional and musical abilities, preserved and impaired in patients with this pathology.

Intervenciones musicoterapéuticas para la activación del sistema reticular / Music therapeutic interventions for reticular activating system

La musicoterapia es una disciplina que progresivamente está ampliando su campo de abordaje. Dentro de las nuevas intervenciones se pueden mencionar las implementadas en pacientes con estado alterado de conciencia y cuadros patológicos, producto de lesiones neuronales adquiridas que involucran al sistema reticular. La formación reticular es una red neuronal que establece conexiones con gran parte del sistema nervioso, regulando el alerta general, la dirección de la atención y la transición entre sueño y vigilia. A partir de esto, el trabajo que se informa está centrado en una descripción general de los diferentes estados alterados de conciencia y las intervenciones de una disciplina científica, con técnicas no invasivas que utiliza el sonido y sus elementos específicamente en el diagnóstico y abordaje terapéutico de pacientes en estado de mínima conciencia y su efecto en la formación reticular, teniendo como objetivo principal la rehabilitación del paciente y el aumento de sus niveles de alerta. Las técnicas en musicoterapia se basan en los resultados positivos del efecto de ciertos parámetros sonoros tales como la melodía, los aspectos temporales, la armonía, sobre indicadores fisiológicos (frecuencia respiratoria y cardíaca, conductancia de la piel, niveles de cortisol, etc.), que proporcionan un marco organizativo. A través de dicho marco las personas pueden responder e interactuar por medio de las propuestas musicales, determinadas por características, tales como la simplicidad, la utilización de la voz sin acompañamiento, improvisando vocales, melodías repetitivas, música de baja densidad cronométrica unida a la velocidad respiratoria del paciente y que pertenezca a su entorno familiar.

Music-therapy is a scientific discipline that in the last years has extended its work fields, to multiple populations and pathologies. Among the new interventions is the one related to altered conscious states, which are pathological disorders product of acquired neuronal lesions that involved the reticular system. Currently, there are different and varied models music-therapy that works with patients with altered consciousness states and the pathologies associated to those disorders. Parallel to the cognitive rehabilitation a branch emerged called neurological music-therapy, which is based in the neuroscientific model of musical production and perception and it is defined as the therapeutic application of music and theirs discursive elements in people who suffered motor, cognitive and sensorial deficits caused by neurological diseases. The reticular system is a neuronal network, known as a complex area due to its anatomy and functional heterogeneity. This network stablish connections with a large portion of the nervous system, acts as a filter system as it is responsible for separating incoming stimuli, discriminating between those relevant and not relevant, and it regulates the general alert, direction of attention, transition between awake, and sleep states. The lesions and deficits that involved the reticular system had been a point of scientific interest for many years. There are two main components related to conscience: the arousal or wakefulness (be aware) and the awareness (the content of conscience). The arousal is considered a preparation state to action that consists in primitive behaviors to the environment, i.e. involuntary behaviors. To maintain the arousal intervenes the ascendant reticular system. While awareness involved a complex process, a cognitive elaboration of thought. Such elaboration encompasses the process of information that is received through the senses and environmental demands. When these processes are interrupted because of traumas or anomalies could generated a coma or states where the content of conscious are affected. After the brain injury, the patients are in a coma state and from there they could emerged with different long-term results: Post-traumatic amnesia, Minimal conscious state, vegetative state or death. The music-therapy techniques used with this population are descripted in this work from a neurological model, which is based in empirical evidence. This evidence is result of the effect of specific sound parameters (as melody, rhythm, harmony) upon physiological indicators (as heart rate, respiratory frequency, skin conductance, cortisol levels, among others), as well as the use of familiar music for the patient, detecting physiological indicators during musical experiences. The music-therapy techniques provide and motivate an organizational framework through which patients with severe disorders of their expressive and receptive linguistic abilities could respond and interact through musical applications. These techniques are possible because music is an innate ability of all human beings, also because the auditive system is the first sense that develops in the intrauterine level. The characteristics of music-therapy techniques are defined for simplicity, the use of the voice, where repetitive melodies are improvised, without breaking the laws of musical expectation, with low chronometric density music; this type of music go along with the respiratory speed of the patient. Also the musical history of the patient is taken into account to enable a familiar environment. With this background, the current work focuses in a general description of the different conscious states, the implication of reticular system and the interventions of music-therapy as a scientific discipline that offers non-invasive techniques that used the sound and their elements to test, to diagnostic and to treat patients in a minimal state of conscious. This technique has the ultimate goal of rehabilitate the cognitive functions and enhance the alert levels, besides providing a reinforcement for the interdisciplinary approach.

Rock influences spatial memory in adult rats, while classical music do not / El rock afecta la memoria espacial en ratas adultas, mientras que la música clásica no

Music can be used as a therapeutic tool and has several effects in cognitive and physiological functions. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of different musical pieces in spatial memory in adult male rats. A T maze was used to investigate spatial memory, with 2h and 6h inter trial interval between training and testing phases. Before training, animals were exposed to an active or relaxing musical stimulus corresponding to rock and classical pieces. It was found that in the experiment with 2h interval, animals explore more the novel arm in comparison with the other arm, which indicated that animals still had a good spatial memory. This was not observed in rats that were exposed to the relaxing rock piece, which could indicate that this stimulus diminished memory. With the 6h interval the rats explored both arms equally, except animals that were exposed to the activating rock piece of music which indicated a slightly enhance in memory. Thus, there were found different effects of music corresponding to the time of interval and the stimulus characteristics. This data provides information to use music as a possible treatment to modulate memory (AU)

La música puede ser usada como una herramienta terapéutica y ha demostrado tener múltiples efectos en las funciones cognitivas y fisiológicas. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el efecto de diferentes piezas musicales en la memoria espacial de ratas adultas macho. Se utilizó un laberinto en forma de T para evaluar la memoria espacial, con 2 y 6 horas de intervalo entre ensayos entre el entrenamiento y fase de testeo. Antes del entrenamiento los animales fueron expuestos a estímulos sonoros activantes o relajantes correspondientes a piezas de rock y música clásica. Se encontró que en el experimento con 2 horas de intervalo los animales exploraron más el brazo novedoso en comparación con el ya conocido, lo cual indica que los sujetos tenían un buen índice de memoria espacial. Esto no se observó en las ratas que fueron expuestas a la pieza de rock relajante, lo que indicaría que este estímulo disminuyó la memoria. Con el intervalo de 6 horas los animales exploraron ambos brazos por igual, excepto los que fueron expuestos a la pieza activante de rock, lo cual indicaría una mejora en la memoria. Con lo cual, se hallaron diferentes efectos de la música en relación al intervalo de tiempo aplicado entre entrenamiento y test, así como al tipo de estímulo empleado. Estos datos proveen información acerca del uso de la música como un posible tratamiento de modulación de la memoria (AU)

La Improvisación Musical. Una Mirada Compartida entre la Musicoterapia y las Neurociencias / Musical Improvisation. Giving a Look Between Music Therapy and Neuroscience

La improvisación musical es un concepto abordado desde diferentes disciplinas y campos artísticos. Es una técnica de uso común en el ámbito musicoterapéutico, pero su desarrollo teórico desde las neurociencias parece ser un campo poco investigado. El objetivo de esta revisión es desarrollar la temática desde la disciplina musicoterapéutica y su inserción en el campo de la neurorrehabilitación, para lo cual se describirán los correlatos neuroanatómicos y los mecanismos cognitivos que caracterizan a esta habilidad creativa, y que la convierten en una técnica destacable en la rehabilitación de pacientes que han sufrido un daño neurológico.

Musical improvisation is a technique commonly used in the field of music therapy, but its theory is not well-researched in neuroscience. This paper focuses on improvisation in music therapy and its inclusion in the field of neuro-rehabilitation. This research describes neuro-anatomical correlates and cognitive mechanisms that characterize this creative skill and make it a remarkable technique for rehabilitation patients who have suffered neurological damage.

Evaluación y modulación de la memoria emocional: un estudio preliminar / Evaluation and modulation of emotional memory: a preliminary study

El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar la memoria de imágenes con diferente contenido emocional, y analizar si la realización de una tarea, con distintos niveles de complejidad, modulaba el recuerdo posterior de los participantes. Para ello 64 estudiantes observaron 24 imágenes emocionales y 24 neutras. Inmediatamente después, realizaban una tarea, que consistía en la resolución de operaciones matemáticas con distinto grado de dificultad. Una semana más tarde se evaluó a los participantes en una prueba de recuerdo libre. Como resultado se observó que las imágenes con contenido emocional se recordaron significativamente más que las neutras. La realización de la tarea no afectó la consolidación de la información acerca de las imágenes. Sin embargo, al igual que en la literatura, se encontró que el contenido emocional de las fotografías actuó como un neuromodulador facilitando la memoria de las imágenes emocionales, en comparación con las neutras.