FIGURE 1.

The human auditory system is interconnected by a complex circuitry of bottom up (thin gray lines) and top down (thick black lines) neural fibers that extend from the cochlea to the cortex and back again (A). Together, these pathways facilitate the modulation of neural function according to parameters that include directed attention to particular sounds or sound features, recent experiences being held in temporary memory storage sites, and a sound or sound pattern’s acquired behavioral relevance, such as through associations gained with training. Evidence suggests that music training refines human auditory processing in each of these domains. With regard to attention (B), adult musicians demonstrate faster reaction times during a sustained attention task than nonmusicians. Similarly, musicians demonstrate increased auditory working memory capacity compared to nonmusicians (C), which is thought to contribute to musicians’ enhanced speech in noise perception (see Figure 2). Music training also facilitates the subcortical differentiation of the upper and lower notes of musical intervals (D), with musicians demonstrating enhanced representations of an upper note of a musical interval compared to the lower note. Musically untrained participants, by contrast, do not show selective subcortical enhancements to either tone. *p < .05, **p < .01.