Introduction

The hemispheric asymmetry model for encoding/retrieval (HERA), stablishes a preferential activity of the left prefrontal cortex (LPFC) during encoding and the right prefrontal cortex (RPFC) during retrieval. Furthermore, listening to music generates a greater activation of the RPFC over the LPFC. Therefore, generating a competition for the resources on the RPFC would be an indirect method to test HERA model. We hypothesize that: Listening to music during memory retrieval (RM) would lead to a decrease in performance compared to listening to music during encoding (EM), since in the first case the right hemisphere would be engaged in both tasks.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to validate a novel procedure to indirectly study HERA model.

Methods

Experiments were performed online. Subjects complete and arousal, personality tests and learned a list of words.

The whole procedure was divided into three conditions: (1) Encoding with music/recall without music (EM), (2) Encoding without music/recall with music. (RM) (3) Encoding and recall without music (CG Control group).

Results

Our preliminary data showed no effect of music on memory retrieval. Nevertheless, we found an effect of music during encoding. In Addition, we found that both the level of arousal and personality traits partly explain the differences between conditions. In EM, subjects with medium arousal and introvertion had a lower rate of word loss between immediate and delayed recall.

Discussion

Even though our preliminary results do not confirm HERA model, we would need to increase our sample to increase the statistical power.