title: Auditory reserve and the legacy of auditory experience.
abstract: Musical training during childhood has been linked to more robust encoding of sound later in life. We take this as evidence for an auditory reserve: a mechanism by which individuals capitalize on earlier life experiences to promote auditory processing. We assert that early auditory experiences guide how the reserve develops and is maintained over the lifetime. Experiences that occur after childhood, or which are limited in nature, are theorized to affect the reserve, although their influence on sensory processing may be less long-lasting and may potentially fade over time if not repeated. This auditory reserve may help to explain individual differences in how individuals cope with auditory impoverishment or loss of sensorineural function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Department of Psychology Affiliate, Cognitive Science Program Affiliate, University of Connecticut, 850 Bolton Street, Storrs, CT 06105, USA. erika.skoe@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Skoe
authors.affiliation: Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Communication Sciences, Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Neurobiology and Physiology, Department of Otolaryngology, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. nkraus@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kraus