New research has shown that patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are better able to remember new verbal information when it is provided in the context of music.

Scientists from Boston University School of Medicine presented AD patients as well as healthy controls with either the words spoken, or the lyrics sung with full musical accompaniment along with the printed lyrics on a computer screen. The participants were presented visually with the lyrics of 40 songs. Twenty of the song lyrics were accompanied by their corresponding sung recording and 20 were accompanied by their spoken recording.

After each presentation, subjects were asked to indicate whether or not they were previously familiar with the song they had just heard. The BUSM researchers found accuracy was greater in the sung condition than in the spoken condition for AD patients but not for healthy older controls.

"Our results confirmed our hypothesis that patients with AD performed better on a task of recognition memory for the lyrics of songs when those lyrics were accompanied by a sung recording than when they were accompanied by a spoken recording," said study author Brandon Ally, Ph.D."However, contrary to our hypothesis, healthy older adults showed no such benefit of music."

Researchers say the results suggest a fundamental difference in the encoding and retrieval processes for musical versus nonmusical stimuli between patients with AD and healthy older adults.