Speech‐in‐noise perception in musicians and non‐musicians: A multi‐level meta-analysis

Hennessy, Sarah; Mack, Wendy J.; Habibi, Assal

doi:10.1016/j.heares.2022.108442

Cited by 18 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Several studies have showed that more familiar music facilitates concurrent linguistic tasks by increasing arousal (Weiss et al, 2016) and generating expectancies (Bendixen, 2014; Russo & Pichora-Fuller, 2008). Musical ability is associated not only with speech-in-noise processing advantages (Hennessy et al, 2022; Mankel & Bidelman, 2018; Yoo & Bidelman, 2019), but also parsing complex auditory scenes (Johnson et al, 2021; Zendel & Alain, 2009). Indeed, there is some evidence that trained musicians also more successfully deploy attention in auditory and even non-auditory perceptual tasks (Bialystok & DePape, 2009; Román-Caballero et al, 2020; Yoo & Bidelman, 2019), including those related to cocktail party listening (Bidelman & Yoo, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiarity of Background Music Modulates the Cortical Tracking of Target Speech at the Cocktail Party

Brown

Bidelman

2022

Preprint

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The “cocktail party” problem – how a listener perceives speech in noisy environments – is typically studied using speech (multi-talker babble) or noise maskers. However, realistic cocktail party scenarios often include background music (e.g., coffee shops, concerts). Studies investigating music’s effects on concurrent speech perception have predominantly used highly controlled synthetic music or shaped noise which do not reflect naturalistic listening environments. Behaviorally, familiar background music and songs with vocals/lyrics inhibit concurrent speech recognition. Here, we investigated the neural bases of these effects. While recording multichannel EEG, participants listened to an audiobook while popular songs (or silence) played in the background at 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Songs were either familiar or unfamiliar to listeners and featured either vocals or isolated instrumentals from the original audio recordings. Comprehension questions probed task engagement. We used temporal response functions (TRFs) to isolate cortical tracking to the target speech envelope and analyzed neural responses around 100 ms (i.e., auditory N1 wave). We found that speech comprehension was, expectedly, impaired during background music(s) compared to silence. Target speech tracking was further hindered by the presence of vocals. When masked by familiar music, response latencies to speech were less susceptible to informational masking, suggesting concurrent neural tracking of speech was easier during music known to the listener. These differential effects of music familiarity were further exacerbated in listeners with less musical ability. Our neuroimaging results and their dependence on listening skills are consistent with early attentional gain mechanisms where familiar music is easier to tune out (listeners already know the song’s expectancies) and thus can allocate fewer attentional resources to the background music to better monitor concurrent speech material.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiarity of Background Music Modulates the Cortical Tracking of Target Speech at the Cocktail Party

Brown

Bidelman

2022

Preprint

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“…Cross‐sectional research in this area is much easier to conduct compared to longitudinal work, and accordingly, there are many more cross‐sectional studies compared to longitudinal studies. Most of the cross‐sectional work has already been summarized in both a review 4 and a meta‐analysis 5 . Accordingly, the next section will review the main findings from these two articles.…”

Section: Musical Training and Hearing Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past decade, several studies have shown a musician advantage for various speech‐in‐noise tasks; 4,5 however, some have failed to identify this advantage 6–10 . Coffey et al.…”

Section: Musical Training and Hearing Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, Hennessy et al. 5 conducted a meta‐analysis on cross‐sectional studies that compared musicians and nonmusicians on speech‐in‐noise tasks. This meta‐analysis focused on 31 studies, and found that being a musician was significantly associated with an enhanced ability to understand speech when there is background noise.…”

Section: Musical Training and Hearing Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Difficulty understanding speech in background noise is one of the most commonly reported hearing issues for older adults 1–3 . Recent research has shown that musicianship is associated with an enhanced ability to understand speech in noise and that musical training can improve the ability to understand speech in noise 4,5 . While most studies show a musician benefit, 4,5 some studies in younger adults failed to demonstrate a musician advantage 6–10 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The importance of the motor system in the development of music‐based forms of auditory rehabilitation

Zendel

2022

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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Hearing abilities decline with age, and one of the most commonly reported hearing issues in older adults is a difficulty understanding speech when there is loud background noise. Understanding speech in noise relies on numerous cognitive processes, including working memory, and is supported by numerous brain regions, including the motor and motor planning systems. Indeed, many working memory processes are supported by motor and premotor cortical regions. Interestingly, lifelong musicians and nonmusicians given music training over the course of weeks or months show an improved ability to understand speech when there is loud background noise. These benefits are associated with enhanced working memory abilities, and enhanced activity in motor and premotor cortical regions. Accordingly, it is likely that music training improves the coupling between the auditory and motor systems and promotes plasticity in these regions and regions that feed into auditory/motor areas. This leads to an enhanced ability to dynamically process incoming acoustic information, and is likely the reason that musicians and those who receive laboratory-based music training are better able to understand speech when there is background noise. Critically, these findings suggest that music-based forms of auditory rehabilitation are possible and should focus on tasks that promote auditory-motor interactions.

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Theta and alpha oscillations may underlie improved attention and working memory in musically trained children

Kausel,

Zamorano,

Billeke

et al. 2024

Brain and Behavior

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Introduction: Attention and working memory are key cognitive functions that allow us to select and maintain information in our mind for a short time, being essential for our daily life and, in particular, for learning and academic performance. It has been shown that musical training can improve working memory performance, but it is still unclear if and how the neural mechanisms of working memory and particularly attention are implicated in this process. In this work, we aimed to identify the oscillatory signature of bimodal attention and working memory that contributes to improved working memory in musically trained children.Materials and methods: We recruited children with and without musical training and asked them to complete a bimodal (auditory/visual) attention and working memory task, whereas their brain activity was measured using electroencephalography. Behavioral, time–frequency, and source reconstruction analyses were made.Results: Results showed that, overall, musically trained children performed better on the task than children without musical training. When comparing musically trained children with children without musical training, we found modulations in the alpha band pre‐stimuli onset and the beginning of stimuli onset in the frontal and parietal regions. These correlated with correct responses to the attended modality. Moreover, during the end phase of stimuli presentation, we found modulations correlating with correct responses independent of attention condition in the theta and alpha bands, in the left frontal and right parietal regions.Conclusions: These results suggest that musically trained children have improved neuronal mechanisms for both attention allocation and memory encoding. Our results can be important for developing interventions for people with attention and working memory difficulties.

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Speech‐in‐noise perception in musicians and non‐musicians: A multi‐level meta-analysis

Cited by 18 publications

References 67 publications

Familiarity of Background Music Modulates the Cortical Tracking of Target Speech at the Cocktail Party

Familiarity of Background Music Modulates the Cortical Tracking of Target Speech at the Cocktail Party

The importance of the motor system in the development of music‐based forms of auditory rehabilitation

Theta and alpha oscillations may underlie improved attention and working memory in musically trained children

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