Effects of musical training on sound pattern processing in high-school students.
OBJECTIVE
Recognizing melody in music involves detection of both the pitch intervals and the silence between sequentially presented sounds. This study tested the hypothesis that active musical training in adolescents facilitates the ability to passively detect sequential sound patterns compared to musically non-trained age-matched peers.


METHODS
Twenty adolescents, aged 15-18 years, were divided into groups according to their musical training and current experience. A fixed order tone pattern was presented at various stimulus rates while electroencephalogram was recorded. The influence of musical training on passive auditory processing of the sound patterns was assessed using components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs).


RESULTS
The mismatch negativity (MMN) ERP component was elicited in different stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) conditions in non-musicians than musicians, indicating that musically active adolescents were able to detect sound patterns across longer time intervals than age-matched peers.


CONCLUSIONS
Musical training facilitates detection of auditory patterns, allowing the ability to automatically recognize sequential sound patterns over longer time periods than non-musical counterparts.
Wang
Wenjung
W
Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. wwang1@gc.cuny.edu
Staffaroni
Laura
L
Reid
Errold
E
Steinschneider
Mitchell
M
Sussman
Elyse
E
D000293:Adolescent; D001307:Auditory Perception; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004585:Electrooculography; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D011361:Professional Competence; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013334:Students; D013663:Teaching