Most of us know that music can make everyday activities more enjoyable, whether it’s listening to upbeat tunes while cleaning or relaxing with soft melodies after a long day.
But new research from UCLA suggests that music does more than just set the mood—it can actually influence what we remember.
The catch?
It depends on how strongly we react emotionally to the music.
The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, explored how music affects memory when played after an experience rather than during it.
According to lead researcher Stephanie Leal, a professor of integrative biology and physiology at UCLA, it wasn’t the type of music—happy or sad, familiar or unfamiliar—that mattered most. Instead, it was the listener’s emotional response.
People who experienced a moderate emotional reaction while listening to music afterward were better at remembering the fine details of what they had just seen. Too much or too little emotion, however, had the opposite effect, blurring the details and leaving only the big picture in memory.
This distinction between detail-based and gist-based memory is important. Detail-based memory helps us recall specific features, such as the exact design of an object.
Gist-based memory, on the other hand, lets us hold onto the general idea without the specifics. Both types serve a purpose, but sometimes remembering details can be crucial, such as when studying for a test or learning new information.
In the study, volunteers first looked at about 100 pictures of everyday items like laptops, telephones, and fruit.
Afterward, they listened to classical music for 10 minutes. Later, once their emotional arousal had settled back to normal, they took memory tests. They were shown new sets of images: some identical to the originals, some slightly different, and some completely new. The task was to identify which were the same and which were not.
The results showed that music on its own didn’t improve memory across the board. But for some participants, especially those who reported moderate emotional arousal, memory improved—particularly their ability to spot small differences between objects they had seen and new but similar ones.
In contrast, people who experienced very strong emotions during the music session often remembered only the general idea of the images, not the details.
These findings suggest that timing matters. Listening to music immediately after an activity or learning session may influence what kind of memory we form.
For example, students might remember details better if they follow study sessions with moderately arousing music, while people dealing with trauma or anxiety might benefit from music that encourages gist-based memory, softening the details of stressful experiences.
Leal explained that music affects the hippocampus, a brain region critical for turning experiences into long-term memories.
Because music is enjoyable, noninvasive, and inexpensive, it could become a powerful tool for personalized therapies. It might one day help people sharpen their memories as they age, assist those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, or help individuals with PTSD reshape how they remember distressing events.
Still, the researchers note that the “optimal” emotional response varied widely from person to person. More studies with larger groups will be needed to learn how to tailor music-based interventions for individuals.
“Music is something we can easily personalize,” Leal said. “If we can better understand how it shapes memory, we can design low-cost, noninvasive treatments that truly improve people’s lives.”
If you care about brain health, please read studies about a simple solution to fight dementia and big causes of memory loss, dementia you need to know.
For more health information, please read studies that people who take high blood pressure medications have lower dementia risk and early indicators of dementia: 5 behaviour changes to look for after age 50.
