Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2011 May 11;6(5):e18082. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018082.
Much of our daily communication occurs in the presence of background noise, compromising our ability to hear. While understanding speech in noise is a challenge for everyone, it becomes increasingly difficult as we age. Although aging is generally accompanied by hearing loss, this perceptual decline cannot fully account for the difficulties experienced by older adults for hearing in noise. Decreased cognitive skills concurrent with reduced perceptual acuity are thought to contribute to the difficulty older adults experience understanding speech in noise. Given that musical experience positively impacts speech perception in noise in young adults (ages 18-30), we asked whether musical experience benefits an older cohort of musicians (ages 45-65), potentially offsetting the age-related decline in speech-in-noise perceptual abilities and associated cognitive function (i.e., working memory). Consistent with performance in young adults, older musicians demonstrated enhanced speech-in-noise perception relative to nonmusicians along with greater auditory, but not visual, working memory capacity. By demonstrating that speech-in-noise perception and related cognitive function are enhanced in older musicians, our results imply that musical training may reduce the impact of age-related auditory decline.
我们日常生活中的大部分交流都是在背景噪音中进行的，这会影响我们的听力。虽然理解噪声中的言语对每个人来说都是一项挑战，但随着年龄的增长，这种挑战会变得越来越困难。尽管衰老通常伴随着听力损失，但这种感知能力的下降并不能完全解释老年人在噪声中听辨的困难。与感知能力下降同时出现的认知能力下降被认为是导致老年人在噪声中理解言语困难的原因。鉴于音乐经验会对年轻人（18-30 岁）在噪声中的言语感知产生积极影响，我们想知道音乐经验是否会使年龄较大的音乐家群体（45-65 岁）受益，从而可能弥补与年龄相关的言语感知能力和相关认知功能（即工作记忆）下降。与年轻人的表现一致，老年音乐家在噪声中感知言语的能力相对优于非音乐家，同时听觉工作记忆能力增强，而视觉工作记忆能力没有增强。我们的研究结果表明，在噪声中感知言语和相关认知功能得到增强，这意味着音乐训练可能会降低与年龄相关的听觉下降的影响。
