Music & Hearing

This article discusses research showing musicians are better able than non-musicians to hear and understand speech in a noisy environment.

>>The findings strongly support the potential therapeutic and rehabilitation use of musical training to address auditory processing and communication disorders throughout the life span. . . 

 . . . Such populations could benefit from the reordering of the nervous system that occurs with musical training, according to the study. Because the brain changes with experience, musicians have better-tuned circuitry—the pitch, timing and spectral elements of sound are represented more strongly and with greater precision in their nervous systems. . . 

 . . . The results imply that musical training enhances the ability to hear speech in challenging listening environments by strengthening auditory memory and the representation of important acoustic features.<<