Unraveling the specificity of auditory learning through vibrato perception

• Musical training selectively influences specific auditory skills. • While all musicians excel in frequency discrimination, only vibrato-trained musicians excel in vibrato-related tasks. • Understanding the constraints on generalization following auditory training is crucial for designing such training programs. In the realm of auditory perception, the interplay between musical expertise and discrimination abilities remains a subject of ongoing investigation. This study delves into this complex relationship by investigating the impact of distinct musical backgrounds on the discrimination of vibrato attributes. Vibrato is a periodic variation in frequency and intensity, which is possible to produce in certain musical instruments (e.g. violin but not piano). The experiment engaged three distinct participant groups: musicians who are experienced in playing with vibrato (i.e., vibrato-musicians, n = 10), musicians who do not incorporate vibrato in their regular playing (i.e., non-vibrato musicians, n = 10), and non-musicians (n = 10). Discrimination thresholds were assessed using a three-interval, two-alternative, forced choice adaptive procedure. The tasks encompassed pure-tone frequency discrimination, employing 1000 Hz as the reference frequency, and vibrato-related discrimination tasks using 1000 Hz and 440 Hz as the carrier tones, modulated sinusoidally at 6 Hz. The findings reveal that while both musician groups surpass non-musicians in the frequency discrimination task, the advantage in vibrato-related discrimination was exclusively demonstrated by vibrato-musicians. This discrepancy underscores the selective influence of musical training on specific auditory attributes. By elucidating the nuanced interactions between musical training and auditory acuity, this research advances our understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying auditory expertise and lays the groundwork for tailored auditory training programs.