Pragati Rao Mandikal Vasuki1, Mridula Sharma2, Ronny Ibrahim2, Joanne Arciuli3. 1. Starkey Hearing Research Centre, 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94074, USA; Department of Linguistics, Australian Hearing Hub, 16 University Avenue, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia; The HEARing CRC, 550 Swanston Street, Audiology, Hearing and Speech Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Level 3, Australian Hearing Hub, 16 University Avenue, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia. Electronic address: pragati_rao@starkey.com. 2. Department of Linguistics, Australian Hearing Hub, 16 University Avenue, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia; The HEARing CRC, 550 Swanston Street, Audiology, Hearing and Speech Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. 3. The HEARing CRC, 550 Swanston Street, Audiology, Hearing and Speech Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, 75 East St, Lidcombe 1825, Australia.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The question whether musical training is associated with enhanced auditory and cognitive abilities in children is of considerable interest. In the present study, we compared children with music training versus those without music training across a range of auditory and cognitive measures, including the ability to detect implicitly statistical regularities in input (statistical learning). METHODS: Statistical learning of regularities embedded in auditory and visual stimuli was measured in musically trained and age-matched untrained children between the ages of 9-11years. In addition to collecting behavioural measures, we recorded electrophysiological measures to obtain an online measure of segmentation during the statistical learning tasks. RESULTS: Musically trained children showed better performance on melody discrimination, rhythm discrimination, frequency discrimination, and auditory statistical learning. Furthermore, grand-averaged ERPs showed that triplet onset (initial stimulus) elicited larger responses in the musically trained children during both auditory and visual statistical learning tasks. In addition, children's music skills were associated with performance on auditory and visual behavioural statistical learning tasks. CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that individual differences in musical skills are associated with children's ability to detect regularities. SIGNIFICANCE: The ERP data suggest that musical training is associated with better encoding of both auditory and visual stimuli. Although causality must be explored in further research, these results may have implications for developing music-based remediation strategies for children with learning impairments.
OBJECTIVE: The question whether musical training is associated with enhanced auditory and cognitive abilities in children is of considerable interest. In the present study, we compared children with music training versus those without music training across a range of auditory and cognitive measures, including the ability to detect implicitly statistical regularities in input (statistical learning). METHODS: Statistical learning of regularities embedded in auditory and visual stimuli was measured in musically trained and age-matched untrained children between the ages of 9-11years. In addition to collecting behavioural measures, we recorded electrophysiological measures to obtain an online measure of segmentation during the statistical learning tasks. RESULTS: Musically trained children showed better performance on melody discrimination, rhythm discrimination, frequency discrimination, and auditory statistical learning. Furthermore, grand-averaged ERPs showed that triplet onset (initial stimulus) elicited larger responses in the musically trained children during both auditory and visual statistical learning tasks. In addition, children's music skills were associated with performance on auditory and visual behavioural statistical learning tasks. CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that individual differences in musical skills are associated with children's ability to detect regularities. SIGNIFICANCE: The ERP data suggest that musical training is associated with better encoding of both auditory and visual stimuli. Although causality must be explored in further research, these results may have implications for developing music-based remediation strategies for children with learning impairments.
Authors: Ana Paula Soares; Francisco-Javier Gutiérrez-Domínguez; Helena M Oliveira; Alexandrina Lages; Natália Guerra; Ana Rita Pereira; David Tomé; Marisa Lousada Journal: Front Psychol Date: 2022-06-30
Authors: Ana Paula Soares; Francisco-Javier Gutiérrez-Domínguez; Alexandrina Lages; Helena M Oliveira; Margarida Vasconcelos; Luis Jiménez Journal: Front Hum Neurosci Date: 2022-02-23 Impact factor: 3.169
Authors: Ana Paula Soares; Francisco-Javier Gutiérrez-Domínguez; Margarida Vasconcelos; Helena M Oliveira; David Tomé; Luis Jiménez Journal: Front Hum Neurosci Date: 2020-09-23 Impact factor: 3.169