Listening to or playing music later in life could do more than lift your spirits – it might also help keep your mind sharp. A study of more than 10,000 older adults has found that people who regularly engage with music have significantly lower rates of cognitive decline, with daily music listeners showing up to a 39% reduced risk of developing dementia.

read on New Atlas

I think the key word is engagement… people who regularly engage with music. We hear music everywhere and practically all the time. Gas pumps play music, elevators, restaurants, sometimes entire streets play music. Music is practically inescapable. We hear music all the time but how often do we engage with it?

I think I should listen to one piece of music (each day, a few time a week? once a week?) that has some weight to it and requires engagement. Tonight that will be something by Steve Reich. I’ll pick something at random and listen to the entire piece.

I did that earlier this week. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable but that wasn’t the point. Sometimes the most engaging conversations are not with people we agree with! I will continue this experiment. Please let me know in the comments if you want to suggest some music I should listen to. Something that is different, perhaps strange, perhaps even uncomfortable, but interesting and… dare I say it again? Engaging.

Proprioception is our ability to sense the relative position and movement of our body in space. Space perception relies on the collaboration of all senses, or inter-modal perception. Cues can be visual, such as seeing perspective lines, or auditory, such as reverb or echo or any other sound bouncing off a wall or ceiling or other object.

I read that taxi and ambulance drivers have the lowest rates of death from Alzheimer’s. Perhaps that proves the importance of spatial imaging and navigation. Neither taxi drivers nor ambulance drivers are known for their great diets or high levels of exercise. Eating and exercising isn’t everything. It’s part of a good life but apparently trying to navigate on our own is important.

From the quote at the top of this post:

A study of more than 10,000 older adults has found that people who regularly engage with music have significantly lower rates of cognitive decline, with daily music listeners showing up to a 39% reduced risk of developing dementia.

What both of these statements have in common is the sense of space… modeling space in our mind. Perhaps this is one of our oldest and most important senses or abilities. Our ancestors had to navigate space through visualization. Hunter/Gatherers had to migrate with the seasons. They had to remember when and where they could find berries in the fall. Sometimes they walked great distances, They had to remember the paths. Sailors navigated by the stars and had to visualize the route in front of them… the wind, the rocks hidden beneath the waves, the currents.

If it is this sense of space that makes a huge difference in maintaining cognitive strength… then Architects should do better at maintaining cognitive abilities, Tibetan Monks, who visualize incredibly complex mandalas, should do better as well?

Also, if this is true, then merely hearing music will not do much for us… we have to visualize the SPACE in which the musical instruments appear. That is the engagement part of the equation. Without it the music is merely background. Pleasant, to be sure, but without real involvement. It follows that we have to listen in such a way that allows us to perceive the musical space created by the musician or producer. That means sitting in front of loudspeakers or using headphones. It means we can’t be doing a million other things while listening. It means making a little time for listening, just listening. Think of it as therapy, music as mental therapy or exercise. And a lot cheaper than supplements!!