Effect of Age on Psychoacoustic Abilities in Musicians and Nonmusicians

Background: Studies on psychoacoustic tests have demonstrated that musicians have superior perceptual abilities compared with nonmusicians in a specific, narrow age range. Whether this advantage is consistent across different age ranges is unclear. The extent to which these benefits will offset the detrimental effects of aging is unexplored. Purpose: There is a strong need to study whether music training can help reduce the impact of degenerative aging effects on perceptual tasks. Hence we investigated how music training impacts psychoacoustic abilities across a continuum of age groups. Research Design: A cross-sectional descriptive mixed design was used for the study since both between- and within-group designs were employed. Study Sample: The study included 150 subjects, 75 musicians and 75 nonmusicians, in a continuum of age range. There were 15 musicians and 15 nonmusicians in each age group (10–19.11, 20–29.11, 30–39.11, 40–49.11, and 50–59.11 years). Musicians were trained in Carnatic classical music for at least 5 years. Data Collection and Analysis: MATLAB software was used to administer the maximum likelihood procedure–based psychoacoustic tests. Thresholds were established for the pitch discrimination test (PDT), duration discrimination test (DDT), and gap detection test (GDT). The response criterion was the threshold corresponding to the psychometric function’s 79.4 percentage point. Results: All three measures followed a Gaussian distribution (p > 0.05). Results of two-way analysis of variance indicated a significant musicianship effect on all three auditory perceptual tests (p < 0.001). A significant age effect was noted in PDT and GDT (p < 0.001). Interaction effects were present on all tests (p < 0.01). The main effects of musicianship, age, and their interaction showed a “high” effect size on PDT, whereas for DDT and GDT, their effect sizes were “low to high”. Post hoc analysis indicated that age effects were evident only in nonmusicians on PDT and DDT. GDT showed an earlier age effect in nonmusicians than in musicians. Conclusions: Music training can significantly minimize the negative impacts of aging. Continued musical training improves auditory perceptual abilities to counteract the effects of aging and perhaps aids in better speech perception.