YOUR MINI RESOLUTION BRAIN BRAWN • WEEK 2

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Welcome back to August’s micro-resolutions! Today, we are discussing music and art therapy—two non-pharmaceutical interventions with a long history of positively influencing certain symptoms in neurodegenerative conditions.


CCP helps you stay on track!
 
Use our log to track your progress toward our mini resolution. This month, we’re looking to eliminate added sugars from our diets!
 
For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge: 
[email protected]

 
A MUSIC AND ART THERAPY BRAIN BRAWN
 
In patients with established Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), music and art therapy have been shown to improve behavioral symptoms like agitation, and psychological symptoms like depression and anxiety, in addition to enhancing memory and encouraging socialization. Fascinatingly, music and art have been described as the scaffolding between the deteriorating areas of the brain and the preserved areas!
 
Fortunately, you don’t have to be a Picasso or Mozart to experience the cognitive benefits of art and music, they can be achieved by being an observer! In a 2026 study, researchers in Australia assessed over 10,000 dementia-free participants age 70 or older and found “always” listening to music was associated with a 39% reduced risk of developing dementia as opposed to “never/rarely/sometimes” listening to music. Playing an instrument was associated with a 35% decreased risk of developing dementia. Participants who did both- listened to music and played an instrument had a 33% reduced risk of developing dementia.
 
While the exact molecular mechanism between music, art and neurodegeneration isn’t completely understood, we do know this:

 
MUSIC THERAPY MECHANISM OF ACTION:

• Musical training can induce brain plasticity. Specifically, music acts as a stimulus, causing adaptive structural and functional changes in the brain. This can be as extensive as aiding in stroke recovery or as simple as learning something new. This concept was tapped into by the Saturday Morning cartoon, Schoolhouse Rock.

 

• Listening to or playing music can stimulate the release of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, which helps regulate learning, memory processing and cognitive function.

 

• Music can stimulate autobiographical memory. Indeed, this connection is often resistant to decline.

 
 
ART THERAPY BRAIN BENEFITS:

• Art (in particular, via collage making) can enhance memory recall.

 

• Art can also reinforce sustained attention and intellectual engagement.

 

• Art can encourage bottom-up and top-down cognitive processing--two different theories about how the brain processes information delivered via the senses. Top-down processing is when the brain takes in the information as a whole and breaks it down to the smallest, minor aspects. Bottom-up processing refers to the idea that individual elements are taken in, one by one, and pieced together to create the entire structure as it is seen.

 
 
Remarkably, music can even epigenetically influence genes! This is known as “sensogenomics,” meaning music can turn on certain genes. In this context, these genes may protect memory and cognition.
 
So, what does this mean for those of us wishing to ward off neurodegenerative conditions?
 
It means that enjoying the arts, either as a participant or an observer, may be beneficial for the structure and processing of the cognitive function of the brain. It also means we can potentially create a reservoir of memories accessible to us via the arts.
 
This week, let’s resolve to try one of the following:

 
ART
 
TRIAL IT:

• Think you might like to make something for future use? Check out this long list of interesting ideas.

 

• Feel like a kid again with an adult coloring book.

 

• Learn something new while coloring with one of these anatomy coloring books.

 
COMMIT TO IT:

• Attend an adult education class in art history. Free options are available online, via local junior colleges and even some local libraries. Then, take what you learn to explore a museum.

 

• Attend an art class—drawing, painting or crafting.

 

• Contact a certified art therapist for more ideas.

 
MUSIC
 
TRIAL IT:

• Musical games, such as music trivia and bingo, challenge our memories of lyrics.

 

• Attend a sound bath session.

 

• Explore the scales—xylophone not required.

 
 
COMMIT TO IT:

• If you always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument, what’s stopping you now? Years ago, this may have necessitated expensive private lessons, but today, with video and online courses, this becomes available to pretty much anyone!

 

• Find a certified music therapist for more ideas.

 
 
HOW DO WE CONNECT MUSIC AND ART TO OUR MEMORIES?
 
Make a collage. It may have been decades since you last cut up old magazines to create a vision board or tell a story about your life, but now is the perfect time to revisit that creative tradition. Gather glue, glitter, magazines and photos, and craft collages themed around a special person, a group of people, or a meaningful chapter in your life.
 
You might also try making a memory jar—decorate the outside with your collage, then fill the inside with trinkets or keepsakes that remind you of the person or time you’re honoring. Better yet, invite the people connected to those memories to join you. Share stories, laugh, cry, and enjoy each other’s company as you deepen your collective memory bank.
 
Create playlists tied to a particular person or period in your life. You can journal your reflections as you listen or play the music while working on your collage or jar for extra inspiration.

Intrigued? Take a deep dive into the science with the newly released book, Art Cure, by Daisy Fancourt.
 
See you next week when we examine the 5 senses and brain health!