Figure 8.

In response to the syllable [da], peak timing is less delayed by noise (six-talker babble) in musicians (black) compared with nonmusicians (grey), and the overall morphology (assessed by the degree to which the response correlates with the stimulus) is less degraded by noise in musicians than in nonmusicians. (A) Grand average responses of 15 young adult nonmusicians. The circled peaks correspond to the onset and transition peaks of the response that are more delayed in noise in nonmusicians compared with musicians. (B) Noise both delays and degrades the response. (C) In quiet, the onset peaks are essentially equivalent between groups, but noise causes a greater latency delay in nonmusicians (**p <0.01). (D) The stimulus-to-response correlation r values are essentially equivalent in noise between groups, but noise causes greater degradation, as indicated by a decrease in r value in nonmusicians compared with musicians (**p <0.01). When speech is presented in noise, Hearing-in-Noise Test scores are related to subcortical onset peak latencies (E) as well as stimulus-to-response correlation r-values (F). Modified from Parbery-Clark et al, J Neurosci 2009.⁷⁶