Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2011 Oct;49(12):3338-45. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.08.007. Epub 2011 Aug 16.
Musical training strengthens speech perception in the presence of background noise. Given that the ability to make use of speech sound regularities, such as pitch, underlies perceptual acuity in challenging listening environments, we asked whether musicians' enhanced speech-in-noise perception is facilitated by increased neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities. To this aim we examined subcortical encoding of the same speech syllable presented in predictable and variable conditions and speech-in-noise perception in 31 musicians and nonmusicians. We anticipated that musicians would demonstrate greater neural enhancement of speech presented in the predictable compared to the variable condition than nonmusicians. Accordingly, musicians demonstrated more robust neural encoding of the fundamental frequency (i.e., pitch) of speech presented in the predictable relative to the variable condition than nonmusicians. The degree of neural enhancement observed to predictable speech correlated with subjects' musical practice histories as well as with their speech-in-noise perceptual abilities. Taken together, our findings suggest that subcortical sensitivity to speech regularities is shaped by musical training and may contribute to musicians' enhanced speech-in-noise perception.
音乐训练可以增强在背景噪声中语音感知的能力。鉴于利用语音规则（如音高）的能力是在具有挑战性的听力环境中感知敏锐度的基础，我们想知道音乐家增强的语音感知是否是由于对声音规律的神经敏感性增加而得以促进。为了达到这个目的，我们研究了在可预测和可变条件下呈现相同语音音节时的皮质下编码以及 31 名音乐家和非音乐家的语音感知。我们预计，与非音乐家相比，音乐家在可预测条件下呈现的语音会表现出更大的神经增强。相应地，与非音乐家相比，音乐家在可预测条件下呈现的语音的基频（即音高）的神经编码更为显著。观察到的对可预测语音的神经增强程度与受试者的音乐练习历史以及他们的语音感知能力相关。综上所述，我们的发现表明，皮质下对语音规则的敏感性是由音乐训练塑造的，可能有助于音乐家增强语音感知。
