Neurocognitive and emotional benefits of choir singing and their mediating factors across adulthood

Background

Our understanding on how cognitive and socioemotional well-being factors interact throughout adulthood has increased remarkably over the past decades, encouraging the use of cognitively engaging leisure activities, such as music, to promote healthy ageing. Choir singing has attracted particular interest in this regard with its established benefits on socioemotional well-being. Outside the clinical context, however, the cognitive and well-being effects induced by musical activities are often studied separately, leaving it unclear to what extent they interact in contributing to healthy ageing.

Aims & methods

Using a balanced sample (N = 95) of healthy adults (aged 21–88 years) with neuropsychological test data (verbal fluency, processing speed, executive function, working memory) and questionnaire data (depression and quality of life, QOL), the present study mapped the benefits of choir singing (duration and frequency) on cognitive functions and well-being and their mediating mechanisms across adulthood.

Results

Choir singing frequency was associated with reduced depressive symptoms, which also mediated effects with QOL. Lifetime duration of choir singing was associated with enhanced episodic memory and verbal fluency, with a mediating effect of semantic verbal fluency on the relationship between choir singing and episodic memory.

Discussion & conclusions

These findings convey the co-occurrence of singing-associated benefits and characterise shared mechanisms by which these effects interact in promoting healthy ageing.