A Focus on the Reminiscence Bump to Personalize Music Playlists for Dementia

Chirag B Rao,1 John C Peatfield,2 Keith PWJ McAdam,3 Andrew J Nunn,4 Dimana P Georgieva5 1UCL Medical School, University College London, London, UK; 2The Department of English Language and Literature, University College London, London, UK; 3London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK; 4Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, Institute of Clinical Trials & Methodology, London, UK; 5Music for my Mind, Harpenden, UKCorrespondence: Chirag B RaoUCL Medical School, University College London, London, WC1E 6DE, UKTel +447850674672Email chiragbrao@gmail.comPurpose: Music and memory are inextricably linked, and the recollection of music varies according to age. In order to create personalized music playlists tailored for people living with dementia, this study aimed to determine the age at which healthy individuals could best recall music that was popular at the time.Methods: A survey was designed asking participants to identify the number of songs they recalled from a random selection of 10 from the 100 most popular songs from each year, presented in random order of years, from 1945 to 2015. Of the 311 individuals born between 1929 and 2002, who responded to the survey, 157 met the inclusion criteria.Results: The median peak of recollection was between the ages of 13 and 19 across all age-cohorts, with participants recalling a maximum median number of 6– 8 songs in all of the age-cohorts. There was no evidence of a difference in the peak age of recollection between those who recognized seven or more songs in at least 1 year and those who recognized fewer than seven songs in all years.Conclusion: The peak of recollection of popular music occurs in the teenage years, regardless of era of birth. Music from this “reminiscence bump” provides a rich source of retained music that should be tapped when creating playlists of meaningful music for people living with dementia.Keywords: music therapy, neurocognitive disorders, memory, quality of life