Strait Dana L, Kraus Nina
Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University Evanston, IL, USA.
Front Psychol. 2011 Jun 13;2:113. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00113. eCollection 2011.
Even in the quietest of rooms, our senses are perpetually inundated by a barrage of sounds, requiring the auditory system to adapt to a variety of listening conditions in order to extract signals of interest (e.g., one speaker's voice amidst others). Brain networks that promote selective attention are thought to sharpen the neural encoding of a target signal, suppressing competing sounds and enhancing perceptual performance. Here, we ask: does musical training benefit cortical mechanisms that underlie selective attention to speech? To answer this question, we assessed the impact of selective auditory attention on cortical auditory-evoked response variability in musicians and non-musicians. Outcomes indicate strengthened brain networks for selective auditory attention in musicians in that musicians but not non-musicians demonstrate decreased prefrontal response variability with auditory attention. Results are interpreted in the context of previous work documenting perceptual and subcortical advantages in musicians for the hearing and neural encoding of speech in background noise. Musicians' neural proficiency for selectively engaging and sustaining auditory attention to language indicates a potential benefit of music for auditory training. Given the importance of auditory attention for the development and maintenance of language-related skills, musical training may aid in the prevention, habilitation, and remediation of individuals with a wide range of attention-based language, listening and learning impairments.
即使在最安静的房间里，我们的感官也始终被一连串的声音所淹没，这就要求听觉系统适应各种聆听条件，以便提取感兴趣的信号（例如，在其他人的声音中分辨出一个说话者的声音）。人们认为，促进选择性注意的大脑网络会增强目标信号的神经编码，抑制竞争声音并提高感知性能。在此，我们提出疑问：音乐训练是否有益于支持对语音进行选择性注意的皮层机制？为了回答这个问题，我们评估了选择性听觉注意对音乐家和非音乐家皮层听觉诱发反应变异性的影响。结果表明，音乐家的选择性听觉注意大脑网络得到了强化，因为只有音乐家而非非音乐家在听觉注意时前额叶反应变异性降低。研究结果是在先前工作的背景下进行解释的，先前的工作记录了音乐家在背景噪声中对语音的听觉和神经编码方面的感知及皮层下优势。音乐家在选择性地吸引并维持对语言的听觉注意方面的神经能力表明，音乐对听觉训练具有潜在益处。鉴于听觉注意对与语言相关技能的发展和维持至关重要，音乐训练可能有助于预防、 habilitation以及对患有各种基于注意力的语言、听力和学习障碍的个体进行治疗。 （注：habilitation这个词在医学语境中可能有特定含义但此处未找到准确对应中文，可根据实际情况进一步完善）
