If you belong to a choir or glee club, you already know how invigorating singing with a group can be. Now, it's getting a thumbs-up from researchers for its brain-boosting benefits.
While many studies on maintaining health as you age have dwelled on aerobic activities, a growing body of research is focusing on the role the arts can play in keeping people healthy.
When she was a Fulbright scholar, Julene Johnson studied how community choirs influenced the quality of life of 117 older adults living in Finland.
Her study reported that singing in a choir was an important factor for keeping older Finns healthy and for improving well-being. Other studies have found that singing releases hormones into the brain that lower stress and provide feelings of pleasure.
Johnson, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, now has another study still in the research phase. It is following 390 older adults (average age 71) in 12 senior centers across San Francisco to determine, as Johnson explained, "whether singing in a community choir can help improve cognitive skills (memory and executive function), physical function (lower-body strength and balance) and psychosocial well-being (depressive symptoms, social support, loneliness, etc.)."
Participants took part in weekly, 90-minute singing sessions for one year.
"These weren't just sing-alongs," Johnson said. "These aren't people plunked down in a chair regurgitating old tunes. They're on their feet, learning new music and following a conductor."
Making the music more challenging over time, she added, is consistent with other cognitive training.
Choir members, and a group of older adults who were put on a six-month waiting list to participate in the choirs, were tested for lower-body strength, memory and other cognitive skills before and after the study. Researchers will compare which group had fewer falls and scored higher on cognitive tests, and whether being part of a social group helped with well-being or eliminated sadness.
"Community choirs could turn out to be a very cost-effective way to promote health and well-being," Johnson said.
• “Quality of life (QOL) of older adult community choral singers in Finland,” International Psychogeriatrics, April 2013. Read a summary of the study. (A fee is required to access the full study.)
• “Choir versus Solo Singing: Effects on Mood, and Salivary Oxytocin and Cortisol Concentrations.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, September 2017. In this study of 38 student choir singers between the ages of 18 and 29, researchers found that both group and solo singing lowered levels of salivary cortisol and improved the participants’ moods. Read the full study.
• “A Community Choir Intervention to Promote Well-Being Among Diverse Older Adults: Results From the Community of Voices Trial,” The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, March 2020. This study followed 390 adults (average age 71) in 12 senior centers across San Francisco to determine whether participating in a choir can help improve cognitive skills, social and emotional well-being, and physical health. Compared with the control group, those who participated in a choir reported less loneliness and a greater interest in life. There were no significant differences in cognitive or physical health between the groups, however. Read the full study.
