May 19, 2011 – Playing a musical instrument since childhood may help prevent hearing loss and auditory memory in aging adults, according to a small American study.
To reach this conclusion, researchers compared the hearing and memory skills of 18 healthy musicians and 19 non-musicians aged 45 to 65. Participating musicians were required to play a musical instrument from the age of 9 or younger. The other participants had no musical experience.
Analysis of a battery of tests designed to measure the ability to hear a conversation in a noisy environment and to assess the auditory memory necessary for language comprehension revealed a clear advantage in musicians compared to those who never had played music.
Hearing and recognizing specific sounds within a musical environment, such as a melody or harmony, would help musicians develop hearing acuity that is useful for following conservation in a place full of ambient noise. .
“When you listen to someone speak in a restaurant, for example, you are looking for the sound elements that identify that person’s voice and distinguish it from other noises. This skill seems to be more developed in musicians, ”explains Nina Kraus, co-author of the study and Hugh Knowles Chair in the Department of Communication Sciences at Northwestern University.
The musical experience also helps musicians to increase their auditory memory by improving the ability to remember sounds and reorganize them in order to process sound information in a meaningful way, continues the researcher.
Studies2-3 previous studies had already shown the benefits of playing a musical instrument for hearing in a noisy environment and for the memory of sounds and words, especially in adults aged 18 to 30 years. This is the first time, however, that such benefits have been shown in older people.
From childhood
Could the results have been similar in participants who learned to play an instrument late? “We don’t know, because no study has yet looked at this topic. We do know, however, that the nervous system (involved in processing information) undergoes more profound changes at a young age than in adulthood, which might suggest that playing music in childhood is important. On the other hand, the nervous system, especially the auditory system, can adapt over time. So we can’t conclude anything from that for the moment, ”says Nina Kraus.
What about music lovers?
One thing seems certain however, it is the act of playing music and not just listening to it, even in a substantial way as music lovers do, that matters. “To my knowledge, you really have to be actively engaged in learning notes and coherent musical structures for there to be an impact on the auditory system and cognitive functions. Just recognizing a sound, like the whistling of a train, is not enough, ”she says.
Fourteen of the 18 participating musicians played the piano. Although the small sample size does not make it possible to assess whether the results obtained differ depending on the instrument used, the DD Kraus believes not. “No matter the type of instrument or the genre of music, the importance lies in the active practice of music,” she says.
Louis M. Gagné – PasseportSanté.net
1 Parbery-Clark A, Strait DL, Anderson S et al. Musical Experience and the Aging Auditory System: Implications for Cognitive Abilities and Hearing Speech in Noise, PLoS One. 2011 May 11; 6 (5): e18082.
2 Parbery-Clark A, Skoe E, Kraus N. Musical experience limits the degradative effects of background noise on the neural processing of sound. J Neurosci. 29 (45): 14100-7.
3 Strait DL, Kraus N, Parbery-Clark A, Ashley R. Musical experience shapes top-down auditory mechanisms: evidence from masking and auditory attention performance. Hear Res. 1 (1-2): 22-9.
