QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

The Journal of Neuroscience, November 11, 2009, 29(45):14100-14107; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3256-09.2009

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Parbery-Clark, A. Articles by Kraus, N. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Parbery-Clark, A. Articles by Kraus, N.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Musical Experience Limits the Degradative Effects of Background Noise on the Neural Processing of Sound

Alexandra Parbery-Clark,^1,2 Erika Skoe,^1,2 and Nina Kraus^1,2,3,4

¹Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, ²Departments of Communication Sciences, ³Neurobiology and Physiology, and ⁴Otolaryngology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Nina Kraus, Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208. Email: nkraus{at}northwestern.edu

Musicians have lifelong experience parsing melodies from background harmonies, which can be considered a process analogous to speech perception in noise. To investigate the effect of musical experience on the neural representation of speech-in-noise, we compared subcortical neurophysiological responses to speech in quiet and noise in a group of highly trained musicians and nonmusician controls. Musicians were found to have a more robust subcortical representation of the acoustic stimulus in the presence of noise. Specifically, musicians demonstrated faster neural timing, enhanced representation of speech harmonics, and less degraded response morphology in noise. Neural measures were associated with better behavioral performance on the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) for which musicians outperformed the nonmusician controls. These findings suggest that musical experience limits the negative effects of competing background noise, thereby providing the first biological evidence for musicians' perceptual advantage for speech-in-noise.

---

Received July 8, 2009; revised Aug. 29, 2009; accepted Oct. 5, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Nina Kraus, Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208. Email: nkraus{at}northwestern.edu

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help