title: Examining the relationship between skilled music training and attention.
abstract: While many aspects of cognition have been investigated in relation to skilled music training, surprisingly little work has examined the connection between music training and attentional abilities. The present study investigated the performance of skilled musicians on cognitively demanding sustained attention tasks, measuring both temporal and visual discrimination over a prolonged duration. Participants with extensive formal music training were found to have superior performance on a temporal discrimination task, but not a visual discrimination task, compared to participants with no music training. In addition, no differences were found between groups in vigilance decrement in either type of task. Although no differences were evident in vigilance per se, the results indicate that performance in an attention-demanding temporal discrimination task was superior in individuals with extensive music training. We speculate that this basic cognitive ability may contribute to advantages that musicians show in other cognitive measures.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Department of Psychology, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, United States. Electronic address: xiaowa@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Department of Psychology, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, United States. Electronic address: lossher@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ossher
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Department of Psychology, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, United States. Electronic address: parl@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Reuter-Lorenz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Oddball detection task; Skilled music training; Sustained attention; Temporal discrimination; Visual discrimination