Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds
Abstract Recent studies disagree on whether musicians have an advantage over non-musicians in understanding speech in noise. However, it has been suggested that musicians may be able to use differences in fundamental frequency (F0) to better understand target speech in the presence of interfering ta...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2017-10-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12937-9 |
| _version_ | 1818343696898195456 |
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| author | Sara M. K. Madsen Kelly L. Whiteford Andrew J. Oxenham |
| author_facet | Sara M. K. Madsen Kelly L. Whiteford Andrew J. Oxenham |
| author_sort | Sara M. K. Madsen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Recent studies disagree on whether musicians have an advantage over non-musicians in understanding speech in noise. However, it has been suggested that musicians may be able to use differences in fundamental frequency (F0) to better understand target speech in the presence of interfering talkers. Here we studied a relatively large (N = 60) cohort of young adults, equally divided between non-musicians and highly trained musicians, to test whether the musicians were better able to understand speech either in noise or in a two-talker competing speech masker. The target speech and competing speech were presented with either their natural F0 contours or on a monotone F0, and the F0 difference between the target and masker was systematically varied. As expected, speech intelligibility improved with increasing F0 difference between the target and the two-talker masker for both natural and monotone speech. However, no significant intelligibility advantage was observed for musicians over non-musicians in any condition. Although F0 discrimination was significantly better for musicians than for non-musicians, it was not correlated with speech scores. Overall, the results do not support the hypothesis that musical training leads to improved speech intelligibility in complex speech or noise backgrounds. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T16:34:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-394eca1aab504d678f77a26c6149ad11 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T16:34:42Z |
| publishDate | 2017-10-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-394eca1aab504d678f77a26c6149ad112022-12-21T23:38:25ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222017-10-01711910.1038/s41598-017-12937-9Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgroundsSara M. K. Madsen0Kelly L. Whiteford1Andrew J. Oxenham2Hearing Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads 352Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River ParkwayDepartment of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River ParkwayAbstract Recent studies disagree on whether musicians have an advantage over non-musicians in understanding speech in noise. However, it has been suggested that musicians may be able to use differences in fundamental frequency (F0) to better understand target speech in the presence of interfering talkers. Here we studied a relatively large (N = 60) cohort of young adults, equally divided between non-musicians and highly trained musicians, to test whether the musicians were better able to understand speech either in noise or in a two-talker competing speech masker. The target speech and competing speech were presented with either their natural F0 contours or on a monotone F0, and the F0 difference between the target and masker was systematically varied. As expected, speech intelligibility improved with increasing F0 difference between the target and the two-talker masker for both natural and monotone speech. However, no significant intelligibility advantage was observed for musicians over non-musicians in any condition. Although F0 discrimination was significantly better for musicians than for non-musicians, it was not correlated with speech scores. Overall, the results do not support the hypothesis that musical training leads to improved speech intelligibility in complex speech or noise backgrounds.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12937-9 |
| spellingShingle | Sara M. K. Madsen Kelly L. Whiteford Andrew J. Oxenham Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds Scientific Reports |
| title | Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds |
| title_full | Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds |
| title_fullStr | Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds |
| title_short | Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds |
| title_sort | musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12937-9 |
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