Musical training, individual differences and the cocktail party problem

Abstract

Are musicians better able to understand speech in noise than non-musicians? Recent findings have produced contradictory results. Here we addressed this question by asking musicians and non-musicians to understand target sentences masked by other sentences presented from different spatial locations, the classical ‘cocktail party problem’ in speech science. We found that musicians obtained a substantial benefit in this situation, with thresholds ~6 dB better than non-musicians. Large individual differences in performance were noted particularly for the non-musically trained group. Furthermore, in different conditions we manipulated the spatial location and intelligibility of the masking sentences, thus changing the amount of ‘informational masking’ (IM) while keeping the amount of ‘energetic masking’ (EM) relatively constant. When the maskers were unintelligible and spatially separated from the target (low in IM), musicians and non-musicians performed comparably. These results suggest that the characteristics of speech maskers and the amount of IM can influence the magnitude of the differences found between musicians and non-musicians in multiple-talker “cocktail party” environments. Furthermore, considering the task in terms of the EM-IM distinction provides a conceptual framework for future behavioral and neuroscientific studies which explore the underlying sensory and cognitive mechanisms contributing to enhanced “speech-in-noise” perception by musicians.

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

“…The musicians showed overall better intelligibility than non-musicians, confirming a musician advantage for speech-on-speech perception. In contrast to many of the previous studies (Parbery-Clark et al, 2009;Fuller et al, 2014b;Ruggles et al, 2014;Boebinger et al, 2015), but in line with one study on informational masking (Swaminathan et al, 2015), this effect was strong and robust across all voice conditions. Hence the results confirmed that indeed the musician advantage for better speech perception may strongly depend on a specific task where the task relies on skills that are improved by musical training (also in line with Fuller et al, 2014b), such as better pitch perception or stream segregation.…”

Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development

“…Given that both music training and JROTC training enhance phonological awareness and involve synchronization with perceptual cues, future work comparing music training to a passive control group could reveal a divergence not reported here. On the other hand, we found no gains in rapid naming or phonological memory, despite the fact that both reading (46)(47)(48)(49)(50) and verbal memory (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38) have been associated with music training in other studies, suggesting either that the training studied here was not optimally designed to enhance these skills or that enhancing these skills requires a greater amount of training or training begun earlier in life. A third possibility is that the link between phonological processes and beat synchronization is restricted to phonological awareness.…”

“…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.…”

Attentional flexibility and memory capacity in conductors and pianists

“…Although these findings provide hints to a general consistency within musical tasks, no transfer or relationship to tasks outside the musical domain was observed here, because performance in verbal WM was not related to any other of the WM tasks. Future research may further test verbal and other nonmusical tasks in highly trained experts (see Parbery-Clark et al, 2009;Ruggles et al, 2014;Swaminathan et al, 2015). However, our results suggest that musical training did not enhance all cognitive skills, nor was it related to self-selection into the chosen profession.…”