The Effect of Subjective Fatigue on Auditory Processing in Musicians and Nonmusicians

Abstract

We assessed fatigue's effect on temporal resolution and speech perception in noise abilities in trained instrumental musicians. In a pretest-posttest quasiexperimental research design, trained instrumental musicians (n = 39) and theater artists as nonmusicians (n = 37) participated. Fatigue was measured using a visual analog scale (VAS) under eight fatigue categories. The temporal release of masking measured the temporal resolution, and auditory stream segregation assessed speech perception in noise. Entire testing was carried out at two time-points: before and after rehearsal. Each participant rehearsed for five to six hours: musicians playing musical instruments and theater artists conducted stage practice. The results revealed significantly lower VAS scores for both musicians and nonmusicians after rehearsal, indicating that both musicians and nonmusicians were fatigued after rehearsal. The musicians had higher scores for temporal release of masking and lower scores for auditory stream segregation abilities than nonmusicians in the pre-fatigue condition, indicating musicians’ edge in auditory processing abilities. However, no such differences in the scores of musicians and nonmusicians were observed in the post-fatigue testing. The results were inferred as the music training related advantage in temporal resolution, and speech perception in noise might have been reduced due to fatigue. In the end, we recommend that musicians consider fatigue a significant factor, as it might affect their performance in auditory processing tasks. Future researchers must also consider fatigue as a variable while measuring auditory processing in musicians. However, we restricted the auditory processing to temporal resolution and speech perception in noise only. Generalizing these results to other auditory processes requires further investigation.