AKARSH SHEKHAR
HOW TO UNPLUG YOUR EARS AND HEAR BETTER WITH MUSIC ?
Music is awesome . A few seconds into your favourite song and you already start feeling happier and your stress levels come down . Now , researchers have found out that listening to music can actually enhance our hearing .
Relation between singing and speech
According to some researchers , in people of comparable hearing and of equal age , musicians seem to have a superior ability to distinguish speech in a noisy environment . It is possible that musicians have innate abilities , but it could also be related to their training . Their working hypothesis is that singing would develop a perception of weak sounds , which in turn would enhance the perception of speech in a noisy environment .
To test their hypothesis , the researchers contacted some elderly people with hearing loss within their database and offered to join a choir - no musical experience being necessary . Participants signed up for a 10-week session that included singing lessons , choir lessons , computer homework , and , just for fun , a performance at the end of their training . The first group was formed in 2014 , the most recent completed their vocal training in the first week of July 2017 .
In addition , the researchers set up two other groups , called control groups . One was just listening to the music , while the other had no musical intervention . Periodically , the researchers used electrodes , applied to the scalp , to track the brainstem hearing performance of participants in the three groups . This allows the team of researchers to measure how well the brain encodes sound , especially how it responds to specific speech patterns such as vowels .
The result ? Studies have determined that the choir group ’ s brainstem response improves with vocal lessons . The other two groups showed no improvement .
The Score Magazine
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