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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Musical Training and Its Association With Age-Related Changes in Binaural, Temporal, and Spatial Processing
Kavassery Venkateswaran Nisha1, Ranjini Durai1, Sreeraj Konadath1
1Department of Audiology, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru.
Objective:
This article aimed to assess the relationship between musical training and age-related changes in binaural, temporal, and spatial processing abilities.
Design:
A standard group comparison study was conducted involving both musicians and nonmusicians. The effect of musical training was assessed using a battery of psychoacoustical tests (interaural time and level difference thresholds: ITD & ILD, binaural gap detection threshold, and virtual auditory space identification test) and subjective ratings (Spatial-Hearing subsection of Speech, Spatial, and Quality of Hearing scale in Kannada).
Study Sample:
A total of 60 participants, between 41 and 70 years, were divided into three groups of 20 each, based on their age (41-50, 51-60, and 61-70 years). Each of these three groups was subdivided into two, one comprising 10 musicians (vocalists practicing South-Indian classical music) and the other comprising 10 nonmusicians.
Results:
Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that musicians performed significantly better (p < .001) than nonmusicians in all the tests. Analyses of variance showed that whereas age had no effect (p > .05) on performance in any of the tests in musicians, age affected the performance of nonmusicians significantly in terms of ITD (p = .02) and ILD (p = .01) thresholds.
Conclusion:
Musical training appears to have the potential to slow down age-related decline in binaural, temporal, and spatial processing.
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