Influence of advanced music education on speech discrimination with competitive noise

Abstract

Introduction: The neuronal organization for music and language has been the subject of numerous discussions in the areas of audiology, neuroscience and musical art. Several studies have sought to investigate the influence of musical practice on speech discrimination with competitive noise. Objectives: To ascertain whether the frequent musical practice promotes a significant improvement in the capacity of tone and speech discrimination in noisy environments. Material and methods: 15 music students with instrumental practice (GE) and 15 non-music students (GC) performed hearing discrimination testing with pure tones and speech with competitive noise. All participants underwent a pure tone discrimination test, the modified changing threshold test (TMLDm), and speech discrimination test (speech
TMLDm), both with competitive noise. Results: All participants were normal-hearing and aged between 16 and 33 years old (GE, M=19.1 years, SD=4.2; GC, M=20.1, SD=5.4). The GE significantly exceeded the CG in both tests (p value <0.05). In both the right and left ears in tone TMLDm, the GE obtained a mean signal-to-noise ratio of -5 dB. In the speech TMLDm, the participants of the CG erred, on average, the repetition of 8 words compared to the average of 1 failure of the GE. Conclusions: The results suggest that musical practice can improve performance in word discrimination with competitive noise, which also allows foreseeing better central auditory processing.