Music Training Enhances Auditory Inhibitory Control but Not Visual

Inhibitory control is an important component of cognitive processing that is influenced by multimodal information processing. Recent research has mainly focused on the influence of visual information on inhibitory control, paying less attention to the impact of auditory training, which limits the exploration of the mechanism and practical training of inhibitory control. The influence of music training on inhibitory control has received considerable attention in recent years. To explore the modality-specificity of inhibitory control, this study compares the behavioral and brain electrical activities of different music training experiences through visual and auditory inhibitory control tasks.

This investigation utilized event-related potential (ERP) and time-frequency analysis methodologies to examine the behavioral and neural patterns of thirty participants with musical expertise alongside thirty individuals without such training while completing both visual and auditory Stroop tasks. Further analysis was conducted to examine the modality-specific effect of music training on inhibitory control.

The results showed no significant group differences in behavioral performance or traditional ERP components (N450 and sustained potential (SP)) in either modality. Time-frequency analysis revealed no significant differences in theta power in the visual modality. However, in the auditory modality, the music training group exhibited significantly lower beta power, suggesting that music training may more efficiently recruit neural resources when resolving auditory conflict.

These findings indicate that inhibitory control exhibits modality specificity across both visual and auditory modalities. Specifically, music training mainly improves auditory conflict resolution, suggesting its impact on inhibitory control is limited to specific sensory modalities.