Abstract
It remains unclear whether musical training is associated with improved speech understanding in a noisy environment, with different studies reaching differing conclusions. Even in those studies that have reported an advantage for highly trained musicians, it is not known whether the benefits measured in laboratory tests extend to more ecologically valid situations. This study aimed to establish whether musicians are better than non-musicians at understanding speech in a background of competing speakers or speech-shaped noise under more realistic conditions, involving sounds presented in space via a spherical array of 64 loudspeakers, rather than over headphones, with and without simulated room reverberation. The study also included experiments testing fundamental frequency discrimination limens (F0DLs), interaural time differences limens (ITDLs), and attentive tracking. Sixty-four participants (32 non-musicians and 32 musicians) were tested, with the two groups matched in age, sex, and IQ as assessed with Raven’s Advanced Progressive matrices. There was a significant benefit of musicianship for F0DLs, ITDLs, and attentive tracking. However, speech scores were not significantly different between the two groups. The results suggest no musician advantage for understanding speech in background noise or talkers under a variety of conditions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 10404 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISSN | 2045-2322 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2019 |
Cite this
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Speech perception is similar for musicians and non-musicians across a wide range of conditions. / Madsen, Sara M.K.; Marschall, Marton; Dau, Torsten; Oxenham, Andrew J.
In: Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, No. 1, 10404, 01.12.2019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Speech perception is similar for musicians and non-musicians across a wide range of conditions
AU - Madsen, Sara M.K.
AU - Marschall, Marton
AU - Dau, Torsten
AU - Oxenham, Andrew J.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - It remains unclear whether musical training is associated with improved speech understanding in a noisy environment, with different studies reaching differing conclusions. Even in those studies that have reported an advantage for highly trained musicians, it is not known whether the benefits measured in laboratory tests extend to more ecologically valid situations. This study aimed to establish whether musicians are better than non-musicians at understanding speech in a background of competing speakers or speech-shaped noise under more realistic conditions, involving sounds presented in space via a spherical array of 64 loudspeakers, rather than over headphones, with and without simulated room reverberation. The study also included experiments testing fundamental frequency discrimination limens (F0DLs), interaural time differences limens (ITDLs), and attentive tracking. Sixty-four participants (32 non-musicians and 32 musicians) were tested, with the two groups matched in age, sex, and IQ as assessed with Raven’s Advanced Progressive matrices. There was a significant benefit of musicianship for F0DLs, ITDLs, and attentive tracking. However, speech scores were not significantly different between the two groups. The results suggest no musician advantage for understanding speech in background noise or talkers under a variety of conditions.
AB - It remains unclear whether musical training is associated with improved speech understanding in a noisy environment, with different studies reaching differing conclusions. Even in those studies that have reported an advantage for highly trained musicians, it is not known whether the benefits measured in laboratory tests extend to more ecologically valid situations. This study aimed to establish whether musicians are better than non-musicians at understanding speech in a background of competing speakers or speech-shaped noise under more realistic conditions, involving sounds presented in space via a spherical array of 64 loudspeakers, rather than over headphones, with and without simulated room reverberation. The study also included experiments testing fundamental frequency discrimination limens (F0DLs), interaural time differences limens (ITDLs), and attentive tracking. Sixty-four participants (32 non-musicians and 32 musicians) were tested, with the two groups matched in age, sex, and IQ as assessed with Raven’s Advanced Progressive matrices. There was a significant benefit of musicianship for F0DLs, ITDLs, and attentive tracking. However, speech scores were not significantly different between the two groups. The results suggest no musician advantage for understanding speech in background noise or talkers under a variety of conditions.
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-019-46728-1
DO - 10.1038/s41598-019-46728-1
M3 - Journal article
VL - 9
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
IS - 1
M1 - 10404
ER -