Aug 13, 2025 03:24 AM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1094488
INTRO: A large-scale study from the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota finds no evidence for a long-believed association between musical training and enhanced neural processing of sounds at the early stages of auditory processing.
Researchers attempted to recreate several results from past studies and found no evidence of several key findings. In this latest study, musicians demonstrated no greater ability to process speech in background sounds than non-musicians. Musicians also didn't have superior abilities to process changes in the pitch of speech.
The study did find that early brain processing for speech degrades with age— a finding supported by prior research. This effect of age was unrelated to musical training.
“Using sample sizes that were more than four times larger than the original studies, we found no relationship between musical training and sound processing at very early stages of the auditory system, thought to reflect sound representation deep in the brain,” said Kelly L. Whiteford, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the University of Michigan Medical School and member of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute... (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: A large-scale study from the University of Michigan and University of Minnesota finds no evidence for a long-believed association between musical training and enhanced neural processing of sounds at the early stages of auditory processing.
Researchers attempted to recreate several results from past studies and found no evidence of several key findings. In this latest study, musicians demonstrated no greater ability to process speech in background sounds than non-musicians. Musicians also didn't have superior abilities to process changes in the pitch of speech.
The study did find that early brain processing for speech degrades with age— a finding supported by prior research. This effect of age was unrelated to musical training.
“Using sample sizes that were more than four times larger than the original studies, we found no relationship between musical training and sound processing at very early stages of the auditory system, thought to reflect sound representation deep in the brain,” said Kelly L. Whiteford, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the University of Michigan Medical School and member of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute... (MORE - details, no ads)