Relationship between selective auditory attention and brainstem encoding in musicians and non‐musicians.

Abstract

This study explores whether differences in performance in a challenging selective auditory attention task are related to the strength of the sub‐cortical encoding of stimulus pitch. In each behavioral trial, two simultaneous digits, differing in pitch by 6 semitones, were presented. A preceding visual cue instructed listeners to report the target digit with either the higher or lower pitch. Subjects both were more accurate at reporting the target digit and had a shorter reaction time when the visual‐cue‐to‐auditory‐target interval was long compared to trials with a short preparatory interval. Moreover, behavioral performance was generally better for subjects with musical training than for non‐musicians. The brainstem frequency‐following responses (FFRs) were recorded in response to a complex tone in both quiet and in noise for the same listeners. Consistent with past reports, musicians demonstrated a stronger FFR than non‐musicians; in addition, the musicians’ FFR response was less affected by noise compared to non‐musicians. The strength of the FFR correlated with individual performance on the pitch‐based selective auditory attention task. Results suggest that the robustness of the brainstem encoding of acoustic inputs directly determines the ability to selectively attend to an auditory target using pitch differences.