The soundtrack of your life could be key to memory

Listening to familiar music can trigger vivid memories, and new research suggests that it isn’t just sentimental lyrics or clever rhymes that take us back in time.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo investigated which component of music is most powerful in evoking memories. They compared listener reactions to hearing only spoken lyrics or the produced songs. They found that complete songs were most effective in taking the listener down memory lane because we connect them to specific times and emotions.

This is the first study to propose a reason why songs can cue detailed memories of our past. It is part of an ongoing series looking at whether individuals with dementia could use playlists from their youth to aid recall of precious memories from their past. The research is published in the journal Memory & Cognition.

“We found songs were more effective and often brought back personal memories from the time when the song was popular,” said Dr. Myra Fernandes, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Waterloo. “Music helps us remember by connecting memories to a certain period in our lives.”

Using a range of popular songs released between 2017 and 2020, the researchers asked 84 participants to listen to excerpts of pop songs and spoken lyrics. For each clip, they responded as soon as a personal memory came to mind and wrote about it. The researchers analyzed the recall speed, timeframe and the feelings that the participants reported for memories elicited by the songs and lyrics.

The results suggest that songs act as temporal landmarks, or timestamps, that help guide the brain’s search through memory banks.

The study revealed that more positive and upbeat songs were associated with a greater likelihood of triggering positive memories.

“Remarkably, song cues also led to stronger feelings of re-living or re-experiencing an event. And this is particularly relevant for older adults who may have difficulty spontaneously recreating past events from their lives,” Fernandes said.

Dr. Pelin Tanberg and Dr. Ryan Yeung, who were Ph.D. candidates working in the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab in the Department of Psychology at the time of this work, are co-authors of the paper.