FRIDAY, Nov. 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Listening to your favorite singers may do more than just lift your spirits, it may also protect your brain.
A new study from Australian researchers found that older adults who listened to music regularly had a 39% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those who did not make music a part of their daily life.
The research, recently published as part of the ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older People, followed more than 10,000 adults aged 70 and older for about a decade to explore different lifestyle factors related to healthy aging.
“Music was one of the areas we were interested in,” lead researcher Joanne Ryan, head of the Biological Neuropsychiatry and Dementia unit at Monash University, told The Washington Post.
Ryan added that “they found that in that period of time, they performed better, consistently better, on memory tasks and also on a test of global cognitive function.”
Of the 10,893 participants, about 7,000 said they listened to music most days, and those frequent listeners had the greatest reduction in dementia risk. The study did not specify which type of music was most beneficial.
Ryan emphasized that the study cannot prove that listening to music directly prevents dementia, but the results were strong enough to suggest a possible link.
He noted that music has been shown to improve mood and stimulate multiple areas of the brain.
Other researchers say that listening to music activates motor areas, sensory areas, and regions that process emotion and imagination.
“One of the things that seems to be really important is getting all of those areas to communicate with each other in a meaningful way,” Elizabeth Margulis, director of the Music Cognition Laboratory at Princeton University, told The Post.
Additionally, the study also found that playing music provided a small but significant benefit, reducing the risk of dementia by about 35%.
“Listening to music is neuroprotective,” neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, who was not involved in the study, told The Post. He added that it increases resilience and helps protect the brain by connecting new neural pathways.
More information
Harvard Medicine Magazine has more information on how music resonates in the brain.
SOURCE: The Washington Post, November 13, 2025
