title: Emotional memory for musical excerpts in young and older adults.
abstract: The emotions evoked by music can enhance recognition of excerpts. It has been suggested that memory is better for high than for low arousing music (Eschrich et al., 2005; Samson et al., 2009), but it remains unclear whether positively (Eschrich et al., 2008) or negatively valenced music (Aubé et al., 2013; Vieillard and Gilet, 2013) may be better recognized. Moreover, we still know very little about the influence of age on emotional memory for music. To address these issues, we tested emotional memory for music in young and older adults using musical excerpts varying in terms of arousal and valence. Participants completed immediate and 24 h delayed recognition tests. We predicted highly arousing excerpts to be better recognized by both groups in immediate recognition. We hypothesized that arousal may compensate consolidation deficits in aging, thus showing more prominent benefit of high over low arousing stimuli in older than younger adults on delayed recognition. We also hypothesized worst retention of negative excerpts for the older group, resulting in a recognition benefit for positive over negative excerpts specific to older adults. Our results suggest that although older adults had worse recognition than young adults overall, effects of emotion on memory do not seem to be modified by aging. Results on immediate recognition suggest that recognition of low arousing excerpts can be affected by valence, with better memory for positive relative to negative low arousing music. However, 24 h delayed recognition results demonstrate effects of emotion on memory consolidation regardless of age, with a recognition benefit for high arousal and for negatively valenced music. The present study highlights the role of emotion on memory consolidation. Findings are examined in light of the literature on emotional memory for music and for other stimuli. We finally discuss the implication of the present results for potential music interventions in aging and dementia.
authors: Laboratoire PSITEC (EA 4072), Université de Lille Villeneuve d'Ascq, France ; Epilepsy Unit, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière Paris, France ; Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06 UMR S 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière - ICM, Centre de Neuroimagerie de Recherche - CENIR Paris, France.
authors: Irene
authors: I
authors: Alonso
authors: Laboratoire PSITEC (EA 4072), Université de Lille Villeneuve d'Ascq, France ; Centre National de Référence des Maladies Rares, Service de Neuropédiatrie, CHRU de Lille, Université de Lille 2 Lille, France.
authors: Delphine
authors: D
authors: Dellacherie
authors: Laboratoire PSITEC (EA 4072), Université de Lille Villeneuve d'Ascq, France ; Epilepsy Unit, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière Paris, France.
authors: Séverine
authors: S
authors: Samson
keywords: aging; arousal; consolidation; emotion; memory; music; valence