Musicians Are Better than Non-musicians in Frequency Change Detection: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence

Abstract

Objective: The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine if musicians have a better ability to detect frequency changes under quiet and noisy conditions; (2) to use the acoustic change complex (ACC), a type of electroencephalographic (EEG) response, to understand the neural substrates of musician vs. non-musician difference in frequency change detection abilities.Methods: Twenty-four young normal hearing listeners (12 musicians and 12 non-musicians) participated. All participants underwent psychoacoustic frequency detection tests with three types of stimuli: tones (base frequency at 160 Hz) containing frequency changes (Stim 1), tones containing frequency changes masked by low-level noise (Stim 2), and tones containing frequency changes masked by high-level noise (Stim 3). The EEG data were recorded using tones (base frequency at 160 and 1200 Hz, respectively) containing different magnitudes of frequency changes (0, 5, and 50% changes, respectively). The late-latency evoked potential evoked by the onset of the tones (onset LAEP or N1-P2 complex) and that evoked by the frequency change contained in the tone (the acoustic change complex or ACC or N1′-P2′ complex) were analyzed.Results: Musicians significantly outperformed non-musicians in all stimulus conditions. The ACC and onset LAEP showed similarities and differences. Increasing the magnitude of frequency change resulted in increased ACC amplitudes. ACC measures were found to be significantly different between musicians (larger P2′ amplitude) and non-musicians for the base frequency of 160 Hz but not 1200 Hz. Although the peak amplitude in the onset LAEP appeared to be larger and latency shorter in musicians than in non-musicians, the difference did not reach statistical significance. The amplitude of the onset LAEP is significantly correlated with that of the ACC for the base frequency of 160 Hz.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that musicians do perform better than non-musicians in detecting frequency changes in quiet and noisy conditions. The ACC and onset LAEP may involve different but overlapping neural mechanisms.Significance: This is the first study using the ACC to examine music-training effects. The ACC measures provide an objective tool for documenting musical training effects on frequency detection.

A Preliminary Study of the Effects of Attentive Music Listening on Cochlear Implant Users’ Speech Perception, Quality of Life, and Behavioral and Objective Measures of Frequency Change Detection

“…The advantage of averaging responses from multiple electrodes was that the variability in CI data could be reduced, as the final EEG waveforms include more trials (Roman et al, 2005). The wave peaks of the onset CAEP (N1 and P2 peaks) and ACC response (N1 and P2 peaks) were identified within their own latency ranges (approximately in 100-300 ms after tone onset for the onset CAEP and 600-800 ms after the tone onset for the ACC, respectively, see Liang et al, 2016Liang et al, , 2018.…”

Short Latency Effects of Auditory Frequency Change on Human Motor Behavior

“…We chose musicians as subjects, due to their proficiency in synchronization tasks; this could have affected results, or their magnitude, limiting generalization to the wider population. By Liang et al (2016), FC detection elicits earlier N100 (at 122 ms) and larger P200 (at 226 ms) in musicians. In our earlier tapping study (Boasson & Granot, 2012), though, musicians, vs non-musicians, showed lesser effect of FC direction on ITI, perhaps due to superior tempo adherence in dynamic auditory environments.…”

La voz: potenciando el aprendizaje musical con retorno visual en tiempo real

“…Esta activación concomitante a diferentes partes del córtex cerebral tiene una consecuencia directa en la reorganización cerebral, justificando las diferencias encontradas entre el cerebro de los músicos y el de los que tienen otras profesiones. Por ejemplo, en los músicos el córtex motor es mayor y más simétrico (Shlaug et al, 1995;Lee, Chen y Slaug, 2003); hay un mayor porcentaje de volumen de materia gris (Shlaug et al, 1995); los córtex visual y auditivo son mayores (Shlaug et al, 1995;Lee, Chen y Slaug, 2003;Liang et al, 2016); la capacidad de discriminación de diferentes frecuencias es mayor (capaces de distinguir diferencias tan pequeñas como 100 cents (1 semitono) (Zarate et al, 2012); y la capacidad para percibir el habla en ambientes ruidosos está más depurada (cocktail effect).…”