Many cognitive and perceptual skills are negatively affected by aging. One critical concern for older adults is an age-related decrease in speech understanding, especially in noisy environments such as restaurants. Dr. Nina Kraus, at Northwestern University, will examine whether musical training can protect against age-related deterioration in the ability to perceive speech in noise. Dr. Kraus will record the subcortical processing of speech in noise in musicians and non-musicians who are 45 to 65 years of age to determine whether lifelong musical training results in enhanced brainstem tracking of speech in noise. In addition, the influences of musical training on a variety of behavioral measures will be examined, including perception of speech in noise, short-term memory, and attention.
As life circumstances change, including loss of job or spouse, maintaining social contacts becomes ever more important for social and emotional health. It would be of great benefit if speech understanding could be improved at the source of difficulty by increasing the brain's ability to represent the speech signal accurately and to separate speech from background noise. If musical experience can lessen or slow the negative effects of age on cognitive skills, perceptual acuity and neural encoding of speech in noise, it would have substantial scientific and societal impact, emphasizing the importance of music as a rehabilitation strategy. Â Â
