Shen Dawei, Ross Bernhard, Alain Claude
Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2023 Dec;1530(1):110-123. doi: 10.1111/nyas.15069. Epub 2023 Oct 12.
The generalization of music training to unrelated nonmusical domains is well established and may reflect musicians' superior ability to regulate attention. We investigated the temporal deployment of attention in musicians and nonmusicians using scalp-recording of event-related potentials in an attentional blink (AB) paradigm. Participants listened to rapid sequences of stimuli and identified target and probe sounds. The AB was defined as a probe identification deficit when the probe closely follows the target. The sequence of stimuli was preceded by a neutral or informative cue about the probe position within the sequence. Musicians outperformed nonmusicians in identifying the target and probe. In both groups, cueing improved target and probe identification and reduced the AB. The informative cue elicited a sustained potential, which was more prominent in musicians than nonmusicians over left temporal areas and yielded a larger N1 amplitude elicited by the target. The N1 was larger in musicians than nonmusicians, and its amplitude over the left frontocentral cortex of musicians correlated with accuracy. Together, these results reveal musicians' superior ability to regulate attention, allowing them to prepare for incoming stimuli, thereby improving sound object identification. This capacity to manage attentional resources to optimize task performance may generalize to nonmusical activities.
音乐训练向不相关的非音乐领域的迁移已得到充分证实，这可能反映出音乐家在调节注意力方面具有更强的能力。我们使用注意力瞬脱（AB）范式，通过头皮记录事件相关电位，研究了音乐家和非音乐家注意力的时间分配情况。参与者聆听快速的刺激序列，并识别目标声音和探测声音。当探测声音紧跟目标声音时，AB被定义为探测声音识别缺陷。刺激序列之前会出现一个关于探测声音在序列中位置的中性或信息性提示。在识别目标声音和探测声音方面，音乐家的表现优于非音乐家。在两组中，提示都改善了目标声音和探测声音的识别，并减少了AB。信息性提示引发了一个持续电位，在左颞叶区域，音乐家比非音乐家更为明显，并且目标声音引发的N1波幅更大。音乐家的N1波幅比非音乐家更大，且其在音乐家左额中央皮层的波幅与准确性相关。总之，这些结果揭示了音乐家在调节注意力方面具有更强的能力，使他们能够为即将到来的刺激做好准备，从而提高声音对象的识别能力。这种管理注意力资源以优化任务表现的能力可能会推广到非音乐活动中。
