Favorite music still stirred the brain in Alzheimer's disease, with a weaker movement-area response in frontotemporal dementia

What the research found

Study (brain imaging). Jochum van 't Hooft, Wietske van der Zwaag, and colleagues at Alzheimer Center Amsterdam and the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience report in Brain Communications (doi 10.1093/braincomms/fcag196; Medical Xpress 26 September 2026). People with Alzheimer's disease, people with frontotemporal dementia, and healthy participants listened to personally meaningful music and to neutral music while functional MRI recorded brain activity. The scanner paused briefly so the music could be heard between image acquisitions. Favorite music produced more brain activity than neutral music in all three groups. In frontotemporal dementia, activity was lower in the supplementary motor area, a region involved in movement and in aspects of musical processing and memory. The Alzheimer's response was closer to that of the healthy participants. The release does not give the number of volunteers or their ages. The authors say this is not proof that a particular music therapy will help, and that the response is weaker in some people than in others. What mattered was music that belonged to that person. Educational notes.

Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.

Read the original at Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience / Brain Communications