Enhancement of loudness discrimination acuity for self-generated sound is independent of musical experience

Nozomi Endo (1) , Takayuki Ito (2, 3) , Katsumi Watanabe (4, 5) , Kimitaka Nakazawa (1)

1 UTokyo - The University of Tokyo
2 GIPSA-PCMD - GIPSA - Perception, Contrôle, Multimodalité et Dynamiques de la parole
3 Haskins Laboratories
4 Waseda University [Tokyo, Japan]
5 UNSW - University of New South Wales [Sydney]

Musicians tend to have better auditory and motor performance than non-musicians because of their extensive musical experience. In a previous study, we established that loudness discrimination acuity is enhanced when sound is produced by a precise force generation task. In this study, we compared the enhancement effect between experienced pianists and non-musicians. Without the force generation task, loudness discrimination acuity was better in pianists than non-musicians in the condition. However, the force generation task enhanced loudness discrimination acuity similarly in both pianists and non-musicians. The reaction time was also reduced with the force control task, but only in the non-musician group. The results suggest that the enhancement of loudness discrimination acuity with the precise force generation task is independent of musical experience and is, therefore, a fundamental function in auditory-motor interaction.

Domaines: Neurosciences

Nozomi Endo, Takayuki Ito, Katsumi Watanabe, Kimitaka Nakazawa. Enhancement of loudness discrimination acuity for self-generated sound is independent of musical experience. PLoS ONE, 2021, 16 (12), pp.e0260859. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0260859⟩. ⟨hal-03466631⟩