A specific relationship between musical sophistication and auditory working memory

Meher Lad,Timothy D. Griffiths,Sukhbinder Kumar,Alexander J. Billig

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-07568-8

Abstract

Previous studies have found conflicting results between individual measures related to music and fundamental aspects of auditory perception and cognition. The results have been difficult to compare because of different musical measures being used and lack of uniformity in the auditory perceptual and cognitive measures. In this study we used a general construct of musicianship, musical sophistication, that can be applied to populations with widely different backgrounds. We investigated the relationship between musical sophistication and measures of perception and working memory for sound by using a task suitable to measure both. We related scores from the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index to performance on tests of perception and working memory for two acoustic features—frequency and amplitude modulation. The data show that musical sophistication scores are best related to working memory for frequency in an analysis that accounts for age and non-verbal intelligence. Musical sophistication was not significantly associated with working memory for amplitude modulation rate or with the perception of either acoustic feature. The work supports a specific association between musical sophistication and working memory for sound frequency.

Highlights

Previous studies have found conflicting results between individual measures related to music and fundamental aspects of auditory perception and cognition
Engaging with music involves processing at multiple sensory, perceptual and cognitive levels. It requires an analysis of notes with different sensory properties that are associated with different perceptual pitch values
After the demonstration of a specific correlation between musical sophistication and working memory for frequency, but not with working memory for amplitude modulation or a visual task, we considered whether there might be a general advantage in frequency analysis that applied to both perception and working memory

Summary

Introduction

Previous studies have found conflicting results between individual measures related to music and fundamental aspects of auditory perception and cognition. We related scores from the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index to performance on tests of perception and working memory for two acoustic features—frequency and amplitude modulation. The data show that musical sophistication scores are best related to working memory for frequency in an analysis that accounts for age and non-verbal intelligence. In the form of music lessons, has been linked to advantages in auditory processing and cognitive abilities[1,2]. Classical musicians had an advantage over those trained in contemporary music in pitch discrimination Musicians such as flautists who have to adjust the pitch of instruments discriminate finer frequency differences than those playing instruments like p iano[6]. Cognitive advantages to musicians have not been consistently demonstrated and it may be that these effects are due to people with higher cognitive scores taking or persisting with music lessons or that there are links to preexisting innate interindividual d ifferences[10,11]. Memory may not be a unitary system and there may be different processes supporting stimuli which can be rehearsed (e.g. words or tonal stimuli) vs those that cannot be (e.g. timbre)[13,14]

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