Influence of Musical Training on Understanding Voiced and Whispered Speech in Noise

Ruggles, Dorea R.; Freyman, Richard L.; Oxenham, Andrew J.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086980

Cited by 145 publications

(162 citation statements)

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“…However, the complex, binaural nature of the scenes presented in our task (particularly the dual backgrounds) failed to reveal any musician advantage. Moreover, a recent investigation of musician versus non-musician performance on measures of voiced and unvoiced speech perception in noise (Ruggles et al, 2014) failed to show any musician advantage -a finding partly in agreement with our non-linguistic results.…”

Section: Auditory Scene Analysissupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Auditory Scene Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Musicians' long experience in musically-based scene analysis may also be a causal factor in their enhanced ability to comprehend speech when the speech signal is masked by noise (classic 'energetic' masking) or multi-talker babble (energetic plus so-called 'informational masking' -see footnote 4; Parbery-Clark et al, 2009a, 2009b, 2011Strait & Kraus, 2011b;Strait et al, 2012b; but see also Patel, 2011). However, recent data suggest that musicians and non-musicians do not differ in susceptibility to informational and energetic masking during speech-in-noise perception (Ruggles et al, 2014).Nevertheless, Oxenham et al (2003) have shown that musicians are less susceptible to informational masking compared to non-musicians, as demonstrated using tone detection performance with masking sounds occurring at fixed frequencies (no informational masking) or variable frequencies (more informational masking). However, it is unclear if musicians can generalize such resilience to energetic or informational masking when analyzing 'everyday' auditory scenes.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Generality and specificity in the effects of musical expertise on perception and cognition

Carey

Rosen²,

Krishnan

et al. 2015

Cognition

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Performing musicians invest thousands of hours becoming experts in a range of perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills. The duration and intensity of musicians' training -far greater than that of most educational or rehabilitation programs -provides a useful model to test the extent to which skills acquired in one particular context (music) generalize to different domains. Here, we asked whether the instrument-specific and more instrument-general skills acquired during professional violinists' and pianists' training would generalize to superior performance on a wide range of analogous (largely non-musical) skills, when compared to closely matched non-musicians.Violinists and pianists outperformed non-musicians on fine-grained auditory psychophysical measures, but surprisingly did not differ from each other, despite the different demands of their instruments. Musician groups did differ on a tuning system perception task: violinists showed clearest biases towards the tuning system specific to their instrument, suggesting that long-term experience leads to selective perceptual benefits given a training-relevant context. However, we found only weak evidence of group differences in non-musical skills, with musicians differing marginally in one measure of sustained auditory attention, but not significantly on auditory scene analysis or multi-modal sequencing measures. Further, regression analyses showed that this sustained auditory attention metric predicted more variance in one auditory psychophysical measure than did musical expertise. Our findings suggest that specific musical expertise may yield distinct perceptual outcomes within contexts close to the area of training. Generalization of expertise to relevant cognitive domains may be less clear, particularly where the task context is non-musical.Keywords: expertise; musicians; perception; cognition; generalization GENERALITY AND SPECIFICITY IN MUSICAL EXPERTISE EFFECTS 3 Highlights 1. We studied generalization of expertise to auditory perceptual and broader cognitive skills.2. Musician groups perceived auditory signal differences more finely than non-musicians.3. Musician groups differed in fine perception given a training-relevant context. 4. Musical expertise did not strongly generalize to several cognitive measures (e.g., auditory scene analysis).5. 5. Sustained attention predicted variance in fine perception of AM depth above expertise. GENERALITY AND SPECIFICITY IN MUSICAL EXPERTISE EFFECTS 4 Generality and Specificity in the Effects of Musical Expertise on Perception and CognitionPerceptual and cognitive skills can be shaped and enhanced through our experience with the world (e.g., Goldstone, 1999;Palmeri & Gauthier, 2004). Pursuit of expertise in a given domain is a particularly striking example: groups as diverse as chess masters, physicians, athletes and musicians spend thousands of hours training and practicing, honing perceptual, cognitive and motor skills critical to success in their field (see Ericsson, 2006;Palmeri et al., 2004; Chi, 200...

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Section: Auditory Scene Analysissupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Auditory Scene Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Generality and specificity in the effects of musical expertise on perception and cognition

Carey

Rosen²,

Krishnan

et al. 2015

Cognition

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“…However, evidence for such a transfer has been mixed, and when observed, the effect has been minimal: studies measuring speech perception in steady or multi-talker babble noise showed either no, or only small, musician advantage (Parbery-Clark et al, 2009;Fuller et al, 2014b;Ruggles et al, 2014). Perception of speech in such background noises is not a situation recognized as relying on fine F0 processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-frequency signals produced by Northeast Atlantic killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Samarra

Deecke

Miller

2016

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Evidence for transfer of musical training to better perception of speech in noise has been mixed. Unlike speech-in-noise, speech-onspeech perception utilizes many of the skills that musical training improves, such as better pitch perception and stream segregation, as well as use of higher-level auditory cognitive functions, such as attention. Indeed, despite the few non-musicians who performed as well as musicians, on a group level, there was a strong musician benefit for speech perception in a speech masker. This benefit does not seem to result from better voice processing and could instead be related to better stream segregation or enhanced cognitive functions.

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“…Studies comparing nonmusicians with musicians who began training early in life have revealed a "signature" set of enhancements associated with musical experience (27,28). Relative to nonmusician peers, musicians tend to show enhanced speech-innoise perception (29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34), verbal memory (30)(31)(32)(33)(35)(36)(37)(38), phonological skills (39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45), and reading (46-50), although not without exception (51,52). Music training has also been linked to enhancements in the encoding of sound throughout the auditory system.…”

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confidence: 99%

Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development

Tierney

Krizman

Kraus

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

151

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Fundamental changes in brain structure and function during adolescence are well-characterized, but the extent to which experience modulates adolescent neurodevelopment is not. Musical experience provides an ideal case for examining this question because the influence of music training begun early in life is wellknown. We investigated the effects of in-school music training, previously shown to enhance auditory skills, versus another inschool training program that did not focus on development of auditory skills (active control). We tested adolescents on neural responses to sound and language skills before they entered high school (pretraining) and again 3 y later. Here, we show that inschool music training begun in high school prolongs the stability of subcortical sound processing and accelerates maturation of cortical auditory responses. Although phonological processing improved in both the music training and active control groups, the enhancement was greater in adolescents who underwent music training. Thus, music training initiated as late as adolescence can enhance neural processing of sound and confer benefits for language skills. These results establish the potential for experience-driven brain plasticity during adolescence and demonstrate that in-school programs can engender these changes. music | training | auditory B y age six, the brain has reached 90% of its adult size (1).However, the years between childhood and young adulthood are marked by a host of subtler neural developments. Myelination and synaptic pruning (2-5) lead to a decrease in gray matter and an increase in white matter (6-13). Resting-state oscillations decline (14-16), and passive evoked responses to sound change in complex ways. Cortically, the P1, which is a positive deflection at around 50 ms generated within lateral Heschl's gyrus (17), declines whereas the N1, a negative deflection at around 100 ms generated within primary and secondary auditory cortices (18)(19)(20), increases (21-23). Subcortically, the trial-by-trial consistency of the response declines (24,25). An open question is how experience interacts with this developmental plasticity during adolescence. Is the transition from the plasticity of childhood to the stability of adulthood malleable by experience? And if so, what types of enrichment have the greatest impact on the development of the neural mechanisms contributing to auditory and language skills?Music training is an enrichment program commonly available to high school students, and its neural and behavioral consequences are well-understood (for a review, see ref. 26). Studies comparing nonmusicians with musicians who began training early in life have revealed a "signature" set of enhancements associated with musical experience (27,28). Relative to nonmusician peers, musicians tend to show enhanced speech-innoise perception (29-34), verbal memory (30-33, 35-38), phonological skills (39-45), and reading (46-50), although not without exception (51, 52). Music training has also been linked to enhancements in the enco...

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Influence of Musical Training on Understanding Voiced and Whispered Speech in Noise

Cited by 145 publications

References 38 publications

Generality and specificity in the effects of musical expertise on perception and cognition

Generality and specificity in the effects of musical expertise on perception and cognition

Low-frequency signals produced by Northeast Atlantic killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development

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