Musical training has a profound impact on cognitive functions related to voice recognition, finds a new study from York University.
“Enhanced voice recognition in musicians,” published in the journal PLOS One, shows that musicians possess a sensitivity for voice recognition, surpassing the abilities of their non-musical counterparts.
The research led by Faculty of Health undergraduate student Allison Sletcher and supervised by Professors Stefania Moro and Jennifer Steeves uncovers the cognitive advantages that come from extensive auditory experience, suggesting that the skills honed through music could unlock new levels of auditory perception.
The study explores whether musicians' skills go beyond recognizing pitches and rhythms to also affect how they identify people and objects using both sound and sight. Researchers tested both musicians and non-musicians to assess their ability to match faces with voices and cars with their horn sounds.
Musicians, says Steeves, demonstrated significantly better performance on tasks involving voice recognition – a positive correlation with years of musical training and hours of practice per week.
However, this advantage did not extend to object sound recognition and suggests distinct neural mechanisms at play for processing voices versus object sounds.
These results highlight how specialized training enhances certain auditory capabilities while leaving others unaffected. "Our findings suggest the brain's plasticity allows musicians to excel in recognizing voices due to their extensive experience but does not seem to apply to general object sounds," says Steeves.
Participants in the study – 50 per cent musicians and 50 per cent non-musicians – were required to learn specific pairs of stimuli, such as face-voice and car-horn combinations. Recognition tests were conducted under various conditions – sound alone, visuals alone and a combination of both – to assess their performance.
While musicians showed heightened sensitivity for voice recognition, both groups performed similarly when it came to identifying object sounds, the study reports.
“This distinction reinforces the concept that different areas of the brain may specialize in processing auditory and visual information in unique ways,” says Steeves. “The research provides insights into how auditory expertise from musical training can fine-tune an individual’s ability to interpret complex sounds.”
The research presents evidence of the impact musical training has on cognitive functions relating to auditory processing and recognition and raises questions on how these skills can be used in clinical and educational settings.