Boosting BDNF by Listening to Music

Normal mice exposed to music have an increase in BDNF in the hippocampus.
This interesting study shows that being exposed to music increases BDNF in mice. This is of interest to HD patients since the Huntington's Disease gene is known to result in a decrease in BDNF and numerous studies suggest that this reduction is a major pathology of the disease.

Will it definitely help? We won't know for sure since no one is going to do a study comparing the effects of listening to music on progression in HD patients and it would not be a good use of resources if they did. However, it can't hurt, it may help, and virtually everyone enjoys music. Listening to music would appear to be a proactive strategy to the add to the arsenal.

Marsha L. Miller, Ph.D.
Investigating the neurobiology of music: brain-derived neurotrophic factor modulation in the hippocampus of young adult mice.
Francesco Angelucci, Marco Fiore, Enzo Ricci, Luca Padua, Andrea Sabino, and Pietro Attilio Tonali
It has been shown that music might be able to improve mood state in people affected by psychiatric disorders, ameliorate cognitive deficits in people with dementia and increase motor coordination in Parkinson patients. Robust experimental evidence explaining the central effects of music, however, is missing. This study was designed to investigate the effect of music on brain neurotrophin production and behavior in the mouse. We exposed young adult mice to music with a slow rhythm (6 h/day; mild sound pressure levels, between 50 and 60 db) for 21 consecutive days. At the end of the treatment, mice were tested for passive avoidance learning and then killed for analysis of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in selected brain regions. We found that music-exposed mice showed increased BDNF, but not nerve growth factor in the hippocampus. Furthermore, we observed that music exposure significantly enhanced learning performance, as measured by the passive avoidance test. Our results demonstrate that exposure to music can modulate the activity of the hippocampus by influencing BDNF production. Our findings also suggest that music exposure might be of help in several central nervous system pathologies.
Behavioural Pharmacology 2007 Sep;18(5-6):491-6.