Melodies and Memories: Exploring Long-Term Musical Memory Preservation in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Preservation of long-term musical memory in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) has been widely explored and several reviews have already been written about the subject. Still, it remains unclear to what extent long-term musical memory is preserved throughout the stages of AD. This review contributes to that question and addresses existing reviews exploring the same topic. Both implicit (procedural memory and priming) and explicit (episodic and semantic) musical memory are addressed. The implications of this categorisation, and the methods commonly employed to understand musical memory are discussed. Finally, advice for future research on long-term memory preservation in AD is given.