Auditory perceptual learning in musicians and non-musicians : Event-related potential studies on rapid plasticity
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Music training shapes functional and structural constructs in the brain particularly in the areas related to sound processing. The enhanced brain responses to sounds in musicians when compared to non-musicians might be explained by the intensive auditory perceptual learning that occurs during music training. Yet the relationship between musical expertise and rapid plastic changes in brain potentials during auditory perceptual learning has not been systematically studied. This was the topic of the current thesis, in conditions where participants either actively attended to the sounds or did not. The electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral sound discrimination task results showed that the perceptual learning of complex sound patterns required active attention to the sounds even from musicians, and that the different practice styles of musicians modulated the perceptual learning of sound features. When using simple sounds, musical expertise was found to enhance the rapid plastic changes (i.e., neural learning) even when attention was directed away from listening. The rapid plasticity in musicians was found particularly in temporal lobe areas which have specialized in processing sounds. However, right frontal lobe activation, which is related to involuntary attention shifts to sound changes, did not differ between musicians and non-musicians. Behavioral discrimination accuracy for sounds was found to be at the maximum level initially in musicians, while non-musicians improved their accuracy in discerning behavioral discrimination between active conditions. Yet, the performances in standardized attention and memory tests did not differ between musicians and non-musicians. Taken together, musical expertise seems to enhance the preattentive brain responses during auditory perceptual learning.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Miia Seppänen
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1705585467