Music training improves the ability to understand speech-in-noise in older adults

Abstract

It is well known that hearing abilities decline with age, and one of the most commonly reported hearing difficulties reported in older adults is a reduced ability to understand speech in noisy environments. Older musicians have an enhanced ability to understand speech in noise, and this has been associated with enhanced brain responses related to both speech processing and the deployment of attention, however the causal impact of music lessons in older adults is poorly understood. A sample of older adults was randomly assigned to learn to play piano (Mus), to learn to play a visuo-spatially demanding video-game (Vid), or to serve as a no-contact control (Nocon).After 6 months, the Mus group improved their ability to understand a word presented in loud background noise. This improvement was related to an earlier N100, enhanced P250 (P2/P3) and a

Training with an auditory perceptual learning game transfers to speech in competition

“…Training targets have ranged from simple frequency discriminations (Goldsworthy & Shannon, 2014 ) to phonemes (Ferguson et al, 2014 ; Kimball et al, 2013 ; Wade & Holt, 2005 ), modified speech (Merzenich et al, 1996 ; Tallal et al, 1996 ), speech in noise (Burk et al, 2006 ; Humes et al, 2014 ; Kuchinsky et al, 2014 ), active conversation listening (Lavie et al, 2013 ), and music (Schellenberg, 2016 ; Zendel et al, 2017 ). Target populations have included children with learning difficulties (Merzenich et al, 1996 ; Tallal et al, 1996 ), cochlear implant users (Goldsworthy & Shannon, 2014 ), young adults with normal hearing (Kimball et al, 2013 ; Wade & Holt, 2005 ; Whitton et al, 2014 ), older adults both with normal hearing (Karawani et al, 2016 ; Zendel et al, 2017 ), and those with hearing difficulties (Anderson et al, 2013a , 2013b ; Henshaw & Ferguson, 2013 ; Whitton et al, 2017 ; Stropahl et al, 2020 ). However, the key limitation of many of these training studies is the lack of significant and lasting transfer of learning beyond the trained context (Seitz, 2017 ).…”

Training with an auditory perceptual learning game transfers to speech in competition

“…Examples of training range from simple frequency discriminations (Goldsworthy & Shannon, 2014) to phonemes (Ferguson et al, 2014;Kimball et al, 2013;Wade & Holt, 2005), modified speech (Merzenich et al, 1996;Tallal et al, 1996), speech in noise (Burk et al, 2006;Humes et al, 2014;Kuchinsky et al, 2014), active conversation listening (Lavie, Attias & Karni, 2013), and music (Schellenberg, 2016;Zendel et al, 2017). Examples of target groups for application range from children with learning difficulties (Merzenich et al, 1996;Tallal et al, 1996) to those with cochlear implants (Goldsworthy & Shannon, 2014), to normal hearing young adults (Kimball et al, 2013;Wade & Holt, 2005) to older adults with hearing impairment (Anderson et al, 2013ab;Stropahl, Besser & Launer, 2020;Henshaw & Ferguson, 2013) and those without (Karawani et al, 2015;Zendel et al, 2017). However, a key limitation of many of these training studies is the extent to which training transfer beyond the trained context (Seitz, 2017).…”

Investigating a possible “musician advantage” for speech-in-speech perception: The role of f0 separation

“…Musicians have specialized auditory training involving fine-grained acoustic distinctions of musical sounds (e.g., pitch, amplitude, timing, etc.). Whether this experience can transfer to speech perception, however, is an unresolved question -some studies show musicians' enhanced speech-in-speech perception relative to nonmusicians (Parbery-Clark et al 2009;Strait et al 2013;Vasuki et al 2016;Başkent & Gaudrain 2016;Zendel et al 2017;Meha-Bettison et al 2018), while others report no significant difference between these groups (Ruggles, Freyman & Oxenham 2014;Boebinger et al 2015;Madsen, Whiteford & Oxenham 2017) or an enhancement limited by musicians' age (e.g. only for musicians age ≥40 in Zendel & Alain 2012).…”