Spatial release from masking in musicians and non-musicians

Abstract

Recent research suggests that musically trained individuals have enhanced speech-in-noise perception, raising questions about the mechanisms underlying these effects. However, to probe the robustness of this finding and to evaluate theories about the possible mechanisms responsible for this performance advantage, it is desirable to examine speech-in-noise perception using a variety of methods. This study assessed the differences in spatial release from masking (SRM) in musicians and non-musicians. Spatially separating a speech target from interfering masker(s) generally improves target intelligibility; an effect known as spatial release from masking. A speech target was presented simultaneously with two or four speech maskers that were either colocated with the target (0° azimuth) or were symmetrically separated from the target in azimuth (±15° for two maskers; ±15° and ±30° for four maskers). Preliminary results for the two-masker condition indicated greater SRM in musicians than in non-musicians with the differences largely driven by lower target-to-masker ratios for musicians in the spatially separated condition. For the four-masker condition the SRMs observed for the musicians and non-musicians were more similar. However, large individual differences in performance were noted particularly for the non-musically trained group. Future research directions will be discussed, to explore the mechanisms behind these effects. Work supported by NIH-NIDCD and AFOSR.]