Sixteen hundred years ago, St. Augustine was credited with saying, “He who sings, prays twice.” Today, scientific research shows that he who sings, performs, or listens to music also enriches and strengthens his brain, according to Catholic neuroscientist Kathlyn Gan. Not only that, but sacred music may produce even more beneficial effects. Gan, who leads a research laboratory at the University of Toronto, delivered the uplifting news to about 50 people at an Oct. 30 talk at St. Francis de Sales in Burnaby, Ontario. In her hourlong presentation “The Neuroscience of Sacred Music,” Gan, a former choir director and accompanist, described how research showing that music can be part of a healthy lifestyle that helps counter the mental decline that accompanies aging. Music can also help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, which, in up to 95% of cases, can be driven by nongenetic factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, deafness, brain injury, and social isolation. Not only does music stimulate the brain in special ways, but it also fosters healthy social connections when performed in a group setting, said Gan, currently a liturgical musician in the Archdiocese of Toronto. Speaking with The B.C. Catholic, she said music is encoded and integrated by multiple brain regions, stimulating neural pathways that regulate memory, movement, reward, emotion, and empathy. “Based on those effects, music can help us keep our minds active and foster social connections, which in turn can help us mitigate the risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” she said. Gan, who earned her doctorate at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby and did postdoctoral studies at Stanford University in California, said music therapy is widely used as part of a holistic treatment approach to improve behavioral issues and encourage social connections during mid- to late-stage Alzheimer’s. Gan noted that the CBC recently reported that doctors in Montreal have partnered with the city’s symphony orchestra to prescribe music as medicine. bit.ly/481j34S