Nonmusician Controls Research Articles

Attention, working memory, and inhibitory control in aging: Comparing amateur singers, instrumentalists, and active controls.

Despite the ubiquity of musical activities, little is known about the specificity of their association with executive functions. In this cross-sectional study, we examined this relationship as a function of age. Our main hypotheses were that executive functions would decline in older age, that this relationship would be reduced in singers and instrumentalists compared to nonmusician active controls, and that the amount of musical experience would be more strongly associated with executive functions compared to the specific type of activity. A sample of 122 cognitively healthy adults aged 20-88 years was recruited, consisting of 39 amateur singers, 43 amateur instrumentalists, and 40 nonmusician controls. Tests of auditory processing speed, auditory selective attention, auditory and visual inhibitory control, and auditory working memory were administered. The results confirm a negative relationship between age and executive functions. While musicians' advantages were found in selective attention, inhibitory control, and auditory working memory, these advantages were specific rather than global. Furthermore, most of these advantages were independent of age and experience. Finally, there were only limited differences between instrumentalists and singers, suggesting that the relationship between music-making activities and executive functions may be, at least in part, general as opposed to activity-specific.

Characterizing the temporal discrimination threshold in musician’s dystonia

The temporal discrimination threshold (TDT) has been established as a biomarker of impaired temporal processing and endophenotype in various forms of focal dystonia patients, such as cervical dystonia, writer’s cramp or blepharospasm. The role of TDT in musician’s dystonia (MD) in contrast is less clear with preceding studies reporting inconclusive results. We therefore compared TDT between MD patients, healthy musicians and non-musician controls using a previously described visual, tactile, and visual-tactile paradigm. Additionally, we compared TDT of the dystonic and non-dystonic hand and fingers in MD patients and further characterized the biomarker regarding its potential influencing factors, i.e. musical activity, disease variables, and personality profiles. Repeated measures ANOVA and additional Bayesian analyses revealed lower TDT in healthy musicians compared to non-musicians. However, TDTs in MD patients did not differ from both healthy musicians and non-musicians, although pairwise Bayesian t-tests indicated weak evidence for group differences in both comparisons. Analyses of dystonic and non-dystonic hands and fingers revealed no differences. While in healthy musicians, age of first instrumental practice negatively correlated with visual-tactile TDTs, TDTs in MD patients did not correlate with measures of musical activity, disease variables or personality profiles. In conclusion, TDTs in MD patients cannot reliably be distinguished from healthy musicians and non-musicians and are neither influenced by dystonic manifestation, musical activity, disease variables nor personality profiles. Unlike other isolated focal dystonias, TDT seems not to be a reliable biomarker in MD.

Tonal structures benefit short-term memory for real music: Evidence from non-musicians and individuals with congenital amusia

Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of music processing, which includes impaired pitch memory, associated to abnormalities in the right fronto-temporal network. Previous research has shown that tonal structures (as defined by the Western musical system) improve short-term memory performance for short tone sequences (in comparison to atonal versions) in non-musician listeners, but the tonal structures only benefited response times in amusic individuals. We here tested the potential benefit of tonal structures for short-term memory with more complex musical material. Congenital amusics and their matched non-musician controls were required to indicate whether two excerpts were the same or different. Results confirmed impaired performance of amusic individuals in this short-term memory task. However, most importantly, both groups of participants showed better memory performance for tonal material than for atonal material. These results revealed that even amusics’ impaired short-term memory for pitch shows classical characteristics of short-term memory, that is the mnemonic benefit of structure in the to-be-memorized material. The findings show that amusic individuals have acquired some implicit knowledge of regularities of their culture, allowing for implicit processing of tonal structures, which benefits to memory even for complex material.

Comparison of Strength and Dexterity in Professional and Student Violinists: Setting Foundations to Guide Rehabilitation.

The musician's hand represents a complex system, which requires important motor skills. Although several studies have already investigated rehabilitation outcomes and techniques in musicians after hand lesions, none have been addressed specifically to objectively quantifiable functional parameters. The purpose of our study was to study hand functionality in violinists in order to provide foundations on which to establish and develop more appropriate rehabilitation protocols. An observational cross-sectional cohort study consisting of 34 subjects, including 23 students and 11 professional violinists who were either studying or working at a conservatory. Results were compared to a data set of a non-musician control group. Nine-hole peg test and hand test system (HTS) were used to perform the study. A hand-held dynamometer was used to measure hand grip and tripod pinch maximal isometric voluntary contraction of both hands. Hand strength did not significantly differ on either side between professional and student violinists. A significant difference was seen when comparing violinists as a whole versus the non-musician control group. HTS highlighted significant differences in dexterity. Violinists develop better overall motor performances of the left hand, and their performance is better than normal "non-musician" controls. Dexterity and precision of execution positively correlate to years of practice. We conclude that rehabilitation of a violinist's hand should be aimed at enhancing motor performance of the left hand and should be focused to maximize dexterity of both hands.

Larger Auditory Cortical Area and Broader Frequency Tuning Underlie Absolute Pitch

Absolute pitch (AP), the ability of some musicians to precisely identify and name musical tones in isolation, is associated with a number of gross morphological changes in the brain, but the fundamental neural mechanisms underlying this ability have not been clear. We presented a series of logarithmic frequency sweeps to age- and sex-matched groups of musicians with or without AP and controls without musical training. We used fMRI and population receptive field (pRF) modeling to measure the responses in the auditory cortex in 61 human subjects. The tuning response of each fMRI voxel was characterized as Gaussian, with independent center frequency and bandwidth parameters. We identified three distinct tonotopic maps, corresponding to primary (A1), rostral (R), and rostral-temporal (RT) regions of auditory cortex. We initially hypothesized that AP abilities might manifest in sharper tuning in the auditory cortex. However, we observed that AP subjects had larger cortical area, with the increased area primarily devoted to broader frequency tuning. We observed anatomically that A1, R and RT were significantly larger in AP musicians than in non-AP musicians or control subjects, which did not differ significantly from each other. The increased cortical area in AP in areas A1 and R were primarily low frequency and broadly tuned, whereas the distribution of responses in area RT did not differ significantly. We conclude that AP abilities are associated with increased early auditory cortical area devoted to broad-frequency tuning and likely exploit increased ensemble encoding.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Absolute pitch (AP), the ability of some musicians to precisely identify and name musical tones in isolation, is associated with a number of gross morphological changes in the brain, but the fundamental neural mechanisms have not been clear. Our study shows that AP musicians have significantly larger volume in early auditory cortex than non-AP musicians and non-musician controls and that this increased volume is primarily devoted to broad-frequency tuning. We conclude that AP musicians are likely able to exploit increased ensemble representations to encode and identify frequency.

Variations on the theme of musical expertise: cognitive and sensory processing in percussionists, vocalists and non-musicians.

Comparisons of musicians and non-musicians have revealed enhanced cognitive and sensory processing in musicians, with longitudinal studies suggesting these enhancements may be due in part to experience-based plasticity. Here, we investigate the impact of primary instrument on the musician signature of expertise by assessing three groups of young adults: percussionists, vocalists, and non-musician controls. We hypothesize that primary instrument engenders selective enhancements reflecting the most salient acoustic features to that instrument, whereas cognitive functions are enhanced regardless of instrument. Consistent with our hypotheses, percussionists show more precise encoding of the fast-changing acoustic features of speech than non-musicians, whereas vocalists have better frequency discrimination and show stronger encoding of speech harmonics than non-musicians. There were no strong advantages to specialization in sight-reading vs. improvisation. These effects represent subtle nuances to the signature since the musician groups do not differ from each other in these measures. Interestingly, percussionists outperform both non-musicians and vocalists in inhibitory control. Follow-up analyses reveal that within the vocalists and non-musicians, better proficiency on an instrument other than voice is correlated with better inhibitory control. Taken together, these outcomes suggest the more extensive engagement of motor systems during instrumental practice may be an important factor for enhancements in inhibitory control, consistent with evidence for overlapping neural circuitry involved in both motor and cognitive control. These findings contribute to the ongoing refinement of the musician signature of expertise and may help to inform the use of music in training and intervention to strengthen cognitive function.

Structural neuroplasticity in expert pianists depends on the age of musical training onset

In the last decade, several studies have investigated the neuroplastic changes induced by long-term musical training. Here we investigated structural brain differences in expert pianists compared to non-musician controls, as well as the effect of the age of onset (AoO) of piano playing. Differences with non-musicians and the effect of sensitive periods in musicians have been studied previously, but importantly, this is the first time in which the age of onset of music-training was assessed in a group of musicians playing the same instrument, while controlling for the amount of practice. We recruited a homogeneous group of expert pianists who differed in their AoO but not in their lifetime or present amount of training, and compared them to an age-matched group of non-musicians. A subset of the pianists also completed a scale-playing task in order to control for performance skill level differences. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was used to examine gray-matter differences at the whole-brain level. Pianists showed greater gray matter (GM) volume in bilateral putamen (extending also to hippocampus and amygdala), right thalamus, bilateral lingual gyri and left superior temporal gyrus, but a GM volume shrinkage in the right supramarginal, right superior temporal and right postcentral gyri, when compared to non-musician controls. These results reveal a complex pattern of plastic effects due to sustained musical training: a network involved in reinforcement learning showed increased GM volume, while areas related to sensorimotor control, auditory processing and score-reading presented a reduction in the volume of GM. Behaviorally, early-onset pianists showed higher temporal precision in their piano performance than late-onset pianists, especially in the left hand. Furthermore, early onset of piano playing was associated with smaller GM volume in the right putamen and better piano performance (mainly in the left hand). Our results, therefore, reveal for the first time in a single large dataset of healthy pianists the link between onset of musical practice, behavioral performance, and putaminal gray matter structure. In summary, skill-related plastic adaptations may include decreases and increases in GM volume, dependent on an optimization of the system caused by an early start of musical training. We believe our findings enrich the plasticity discourse and shed light on the neural basis of expert skill acquisition.

Hand Sensibility, Strength, and Laxity of High-Level Musicians Compared to Nonmusicians

To determine whether musicians have more sensitive, stronger, and flexible hands than nonmusicians. A total of 100 musicians and 100 control subjects were assessed for 2-point discrimination, Semmes-Weinstein monofilament light touch, grip and pinch strength, and laxity. Musicians were included if enrolled as instrumental performance majors at a 4-year accredited conservatory of music. Nonmusician controls were university students who never or rarely engaged in playing an instrument. All subjects were between the ages of 18 and 28. The exclusion criterion was history of any hand condition, trauma, surgery, or diabetes. Statistical analyses were carried out using the t test, analysis of variance, and correlation coefficients as appropriate. High-level musicians in our cohort showed the same handedness (dominance) as the general population. The musicians were weaker than the nonmusicians. Male musicians were significantly weaker in pinch and grip bilaterally than nonmusicians, whereas female musicians were significantly weaker only in grip on the right/dominant side. Two-point discrimination was significantly less in musicians for the left/nondominant index, ring, and small fingers, and the right/dominant small and dominant index finger. Semmes-Weinstein testing was significantly better for the right/dominant digits, including the thumb, but not the left digits with the exception of the ring and nondominant middle and ring. There was no difference in laxity between the 2 groups. High-level musicians have, in general, more sensitive but weaker hands than nonmusicians, but the differences seem small and may not be clinically important.

Impairments in musical abilities reflected in the auditory brainstem: evidence from congenital amusia.

Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic condition, characterized by a deficit in music perception and production, not explained by hearing loss, brain damage or lack of exposure to music. Despite inferior musical performance, amusics exhibit normal auditory cortical responses, with abnormal neural correlates suggested to lie beyond auditory cortices. Here we show, using auditory brainstem responses to complex sounds in humans, that fine-grained automatic processing of sounds is impoverished in amusia. Compared with matched non-musician controls, spectral amplitude was decreased in amusics for higher harmonic components of the auditory brainstem response. We also found a delayed response to the early transient aspects of the auditory stimulus in amusics. Neural measures of spectral amplitude and response timing correlated with participants' behavioral assessments of music processing. We demonstrate, for the first time, that amusia affects how complex acoustic signals are processed in the auditory brainstem. This neural signature of amusia mirrors what is observed in musicians, such that the aspects of the auditory brainstem responses that are enhanced in musicians are degraded in amusics. By showing that gradients of music abilities are reflected in the auditory brainstem, our findings have implications not only for current models of amusia but also for auditory functioning in general.

Pitch expertise is not created equal: Cross-domain effects of musicianship and tone language experience on neural and behavioural discrimination of speech and music

Psychophysiological evidence supports a music-language association, such that experience in one domain can impact processing required in the other domain. We investigated the bidirectionality of this association by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) in native English-speaking musicians, native tone language (Cantonese) nonmusicians, and native English-speaking nonmusician controls. We tested the degree to which pitch expertise stemming from musicianship or tone language experience similarly enhances the neural encoding of auditory information necessary for speech and music processing. Early cortical discriminatory processing for music and speech sounds was characterized using the mismatch negativity (MMN). Stimuli included ‘large deviant’ and ‘small deviant’ pairs of sounds that differed minimally in pitch (fundamental frequency, F0; contrastive musical tones) or timbre (first formant, F1; contrastive speech vowels). Behavioural F0 and F1 difference limen tasks probed listeners’ perceptual acuity for these same acoustic features. Musicians and Cantonese speakers performed comparably in pitch discrimination; only musicians showed an additional advantage on timbre discrimination performance and an enhanced MMN responses to both music and speech. Cantonese language experience was not associated with enhancements on neural measures, despite enhanced behavioural pitch acuity. These data suggest that while both musicianship and tone language experience enhance some aspects of auditory acuity (behavioural pitch discrimination), musicianship confers farther-reaching enhancements to auditory function, tuning both pitch and timbre-related brain processes.

Effective connectivity associated with auditory error detection in musicians with absolute pitch

It is advantageous to study a wide range of vocal abilities in order to fully understand how vocal control measures vary across the full spectrum. Individuals with absolute pitch (AP) are able to assign a verbal label to musical notes and have enhanced abilities in pitch identification without reliance on an external referent. In this study we used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to model effective connectivity of ERP responses to pitch perturbation in voice auditory feedback in musicians with relative pitch (RP), AP, and non-musician controls. We identified a network compromising left and right hemisphere superior temporal gyrus (STG), primary motor cortex (M1), and premotor cortex (PM). We specified nine models and compared two main factors examining various combinations of STG involvement in feedback pitch error detection/correction process. Our results suggest that modulation of left to right STG connections are important in the identification of self-voice error and sensory motor integration in AP musicians. We also identify reduced connectivity of left hemisphere PM to STG connections in AP and RP groups during the error detection and corrections process relative to non-musicians. We suggest that this suppression may allow for enhanced connectivity relating to pitch identification in the right hemisphere in those with more precise pitch matching abilities. Musicians with enhanced pitch identification abilities likely have an improved auditory error detection and correction system involving connectivity of STG regions. Our findings here also suggest that individuals with AP are more adept at using feedback related to pitch from the right hemisphere.

Tone Language Speakers and Musicians Share Enhanced Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities for Musical Pitch: Evidence for Bidirectionality between the Domains of Language and Music

Psychophysiological evidence suggests that music and language are intimately coupled such that experience/training in one domain can influence processing required in the other domain. While the influence of music on language processing is now well-documented, evidence of language-to-music effects have yet to be firmly established. Here, using a cross-sectional design, we compared the performance of musicians to that of tone-language (Cantonese) speakers on tasks of auditory pitch acuity, music perception, and general cognitive ability (e.g., fluid intelligence, working memory). While musicians demonstrated superior performance on all auditory measures, comparable perceptual enhancements were observed for Cantonese participants, relative to English-speaking nonmusicians. These results provide evidence that tone-language background is associated with higher auditory perceptual performance for music listening. Musicians and Cantonese speakers also showed superior working memory capacity relative to nonmusician controls, suggesting that in addition to basic perceptual enhancements, tone-language background and music training might also be associated with enhanced general cognitive abilities. Our findings support the notion that tone language speakers and musically trained individuals have higher performance than English-speaking listeners for the perceptual-cognitive processing necessary for basic auditory as well as complex music perception. These results illustrate bidirectional influences between the domains of music and language.

Differences in Cross Modulation of Physiological Tremor in Pianists and Nonmusicians

The study was undertaken to investigate the contralateral overflow effect on physiological tremors in pianists and nonmusicians. Group differences in cross modulation on underlying finger fractionated movement were characterized. Physiological tremors of the right index, middle, ring, and little fingers were recorded in 12 right-handed pianists and 12 matched nonmusician controls; meanwhile, two contralateral resistance protocols (unilateral handgrip using the left hand at slight and maximal efforts) were randomly conducted. Digit tremors of the control and pianist groups were differentially modulated with the resistance protocols. An increase in gripping force led to cross excitations over 8-12 Hz digit tremors and interdigit tremor coupling for the nonmusicians. An opposite cross effect was noted for the pianists, who exhibited significant tremor suppression and the release of interdigit tremor coupling. Further analysis of tremor dynamics revealed that contralateral gripping reduced the complexity of digit tremors of the pianists but added to the tremor complexity of the nonmusicians. Cross modulation on digit tremors suggests that pianists could centrally suppress unintended motor excitation across the midline. When the opposite hand is active, pianists have superior finger independence that allows them to achieve artistic aspects of musical performance.

Effects of reverberation on brainstem representation of speech in musicians and non-musicians

Perceptual and neurophysiological enhancements in linguistic processing in musicians suggest that domain specific experience may enhance neural resources recruited for language specific behaviors. In everyday situations, listeners are faced with extracting speech signals in degraded listening conditions. Here, we examine whether musical training provides resilience to the degradative effects of reverberation on subcortical representations of pitch and formant-related harmonic information of speech. Brainstem frequency-following responses (FFRs) were recorded from musicians and non-musician controls in response to the vowel /i/ in four different levels of reverberation and analyzed based on their spectro-temporal composition. For both groups, reverberation had little effect on the neural encoding of pitch but significantly degraded neural encoding of formant-related harmonics (i.e., vowel quality) suggesting a differential impact on the source-filter components of speech. However, in quiet and across nearly all reverberation conditions, musicians showed more robust responses than non-musicians. Neurophysiologic results were confirmed behaviorally by comparing brainstem spectral magnitudes with perceptual measures of fundamental (F0) and first formant (F1) frequency difference limens (DLs). For both types of discrimination, musicians obtained DLs which were 2–4 times better than non-musicians. Results suggest that musicians' enhanced neural encoding of acoustic features, an experience-dependent effect, is more resistant to reverberation degradation which may explain their enhanced perceptual ability on behaviorally relevant speech and/or music tasks in adverse listening conditions.

Musician Enhancement for Speech-In-Noise

To investigate the effect of musical training on speech-in-noise (SIN) performance, a complex task requiring the integration of working memory and stream segregation as well as the detection of time-varying perceptual cues. Previous research has indicated that, in combination with lifelong experience with musical stream segregation, musicians have better auditory perceptual skills and working memory. It was hypothesized that musicians would benefit from these factors and perform better on speech perception in noise than age-matched nonmusician controls. The performance of 16 musicians and 15 nonmusicians was compared on clinical measures of speech perception in noise-QuickSIN and Hearing-In-Noise Test (HINT). Working memory capacity and frequency discrimination were also assessed. All participants had normal hearing and were between the ages of 19 and 31 yr. To be categorized as a musician, participants needed to have started musical training before the age of 7 yr, have 10 or more years of consistent musical experience, and have practiced more than three times weekly within the 3 yr before study enrollment. Nonmusicians were categorized by the failure to meet the musician criteria, along with not having received musical training within the 7 yr before the study. Musicians outperformed the nonmusicians on both QuickSIN and HINT, in addition to having more fine-grained frequency discrimination and better working memory. Years of consistent musical practice correlated positively with QuickSIN, working memory, and frequency discrimination but not HINT. The results also indicate that working memory and frequency discrimination are more important for QuickSIN than for HINT. Musical experience appears to enhance the ability to hear speech in challenging listening environments. Large group differences were found for QuickSIN, and the results also suggest that this enhancement is derived in part from musicians' enhanced working memory and frequency discrimination. For HINT, in which performance was not linked to frequency discrimination ability and was only moderately linked to working memory, musicians still performed significantly better than the nonmusicians. The group differences for HINT were evident in the most difficult condition in which the speech and noise were presented from the same location and not spatially segregated. Understanding which cognitive and psychoacoustic factors as well as which lifelong experiences contribute to SIN may lead to more effective remediation programs for clinical populations for whom SIN poses a particular perceptual challenge. These results provide further evidence for musical training transferring to nonmusical domains and highlight the importance of taking musical training into consideration when evaluating a person's SIN ability in a clinical setting.

Musical Experience Limits the Degradative Effects of Background Noise on the Neural Processing of Sound

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.

Dynamic Interactions Between Musical, Cardiovascular, and Cerebral Rhythms in Humans

Reactions to music are considered subjective, but previous studies suggested that cardiorespiratory variables increase with faster tempo independent of individual preference. We tested whether compositions characterized by variable emphasis could produce parallel instantaneous cardiovascular/respiratory responses and whether these changes mirrored music profiles. Twenty-four young healthy subjects, 12 musicians (choristers) and 12 nonmusician control subjects, listened (in random order) to music with vocal (Puccini's "Turandot") or orchestral (Beethoven's 9th Symphony adagio) progressive crescendos, more uniform emphasis (Bach cantata), 10-second period (ie, similar to Mayer waves) rhythmic phrases (Giuseppe Verdi's arias "Va pensiero" and "Libiam nei lieti calici"), or silence while heart rate, respiration, blood pressures, middle cerebral artery flow velocity, and skin vasomotion were recorded.Common responses were recognized by averaging instantaneous cardiorespiratory responses regressed against changes in music profiles and by coherence analysis during rhythmic phrases. Vocal and orchestral crescendos produced significant (P=0.05 or better) correlations between cardiovascular or respiratory signals and music profile, particularly skin vasoconstriction and blood pressures, proportional to crescendo, in contrast to uniform emphasis, which induced skin vasodilation and reduction in blood pressures. Correlations were significant both in individual and group-averaged signals. Phrases at 10-second periods by Verdi entrained the cardiovascular autonomic variables. No qualitative differences in recorded measurements were seen between musicians and nonmusicians. Music emphasis and rhythmic phrases are tracked consistently by physiological variables. Autonomic responses are synchronized with music, which might therefore convey emotions through autonomic arousal during crescendos or rhythmic phrases.

Assessment of sensorimotor cortical representation asymmetries and motor skills in violin players

As a model for use-dependent plasticity, the brains of professional musicians have been extensively studied to examine structural and functional adaptation to unique requirements of skilled performance. Here we provide a combination of data on motor performance and hand representation in the primary motor and somatosensory cortex of professional violin players, with the aim of assessing possible behavioural consequences of sensorimotor cortical asymmetries. We studied 15 healthy right-handed professional violin players and 35 healthy nonmusician controls. Motor and somatosensory cortex asymmetry was assessed by recording the motor output map after transcranial magnetic stimulation from a small hand muscle, and by dipole source localization of somatosensory evoked potentials after electrical stimulation of the median and ulnar nerves. Motor performance was examined using a series of standardized motor tasks covering different aspects of hand function. Violin players showed a significant right-larger-than-left asymmetry of the motor and somatosensory cortex, whereas nonmusician controls showed no significant interhemispheric difference. The amount of asymmetry in the motor and somatosensory cortices of musicians was significantly correlated. At the behavioural level, motor performance did not significantly differ between musicians and nonmusicians. The results support a use-dependent enlargement of the left hand representation in the sensorimotor cortex of violin players. However, these cortical asymmetries were not paralleled by accompanying altered asymmetries at a behavioural level, suggesting that the reorganisation might be task-specific and does not lead to improved motor abilities in general.

Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music.

Musical training is known to modify cortical organization. Here, we show that such modifications extend to subcortical sensory structures and generalize to processing of speech. Musicians had earlier and larger brainstem responses than nonmusician controls to both speech and music stimuli presented in auditory and audiovisual conditions, evident as early as 10 ms after acoustic onset. Phase-locking to stimulus periodicity, which likely underlies perception of pitch, was enhanced in musicians and strongly correlated with length of musical practice. In addition, viewing videos of speech (lip-reading) and music (instrument being played) enhanced temporal and frequency encoding in the auditory brainstem, particularly in musicians. These findings demonstrate practice-related changes in the early sensory encoding of auditory and audiovisual information.

Attention in musicians is more bilateral than in non-musicians

Attention in neurologically intact adults normally errs towards the left side of space, as documented in studies involving tasks of visual attention (i.e., line bisection). The aim of this study was to further investigate lateralisation of attention in musicians and non-musicians. Reaction times and accuracy were recorded to stimuli presented to the left and right of a vertical line in 20 right-handed musicians and 20 matched non-musician controls. While both groups performed more accurately to left-sided stimuli, performance by the musician group was significantly more accurate than the non-musician group for the right-sided stimuli. Musicians also had faster reaction times overall. Consistent with previous research, the results indicate a more balanced attentional capacity in musicians, as well as enhanced visuomotor ability, and are interpreted with reference to extended musical training.