Influence of musical training on sensitivity to temporal fine structure

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to extend the findings that temporal fine structure encoding is altered in musicians by examining sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) in an alternative (non-Western) musician model that is rarely adopted—Indian classical music. Design: The sensitivity to TFS was measured by the ability to discriminate two complex tones that differed in TFS but not in envelope repetition rate. Study sample: Sixteen South Indian classical (Carnatic) musicians and 28 non-musicians with normal hearing participated in this study. Results: Musicians have significantly lower relative frequency shift at threshold in the TFS task compared to non-musicians. A significant negative correlation was observed between years of musical experience and relative frequency shift at threshold in the TFS task. Test-retest repeatability of thresholds in the TFS tasks was similar for both musicians and non-musicians. Conclusions: The enhanced performance of the Carnatic-trained musicians suggests that the musician advantage for frequency and harmonicity discrimination is not restricted to training in Western classical music, on which much of the previous research on musical training has narrowly focused. The perceptual judgments obtained from non-musicians were as reliable as those of musicians.

Key Words::

• Temporal fine structure
• phase-locking
• Carnatic music

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the musicians for their time and effort in participating in this study. They greatly appreciate Brian Moore for generously sharing the TFS test software. The authors appreciate discussions with Moumita Choudhury on the differences between Indian and Western classical music. We also appreciate Carolyn Herbert for her assistance with the preparation of this manuscript.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.