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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1538511
Auditory Working Memory Mechanisms Mediating the Relationship Between Musicianship and Auditory Stream Segregation
Provisionally accepted
Martha Liu 1*
Isabelle Arseneau-Bruneau 1,2
Marcel Farrés Franch 1,2
Marie-Elise Latorre 1
Joshua Samuels 1 Emily Issa 1 Alexandre Payumo 1 Nayemur Rahman 1 Naíma Loureiro 1 Tsz Chun Matthew Leung 3,4
Karli M Nave 3,4 Kristi M Von Handorf 3,4 Joshua D Hoddinott 3,4
Emily BJ Coffey 5
Jessica A Grahn 3,4
Robert J Zatorre 1,2*- 1 Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada
- 2 Centre for Research in Brain, Language and Music, Montreal, Canada
- 3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
- 4 Centre for Brain and Mind, Western Unversity, London, Canada
- 5 Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
This study investigates the interactions between musicianship and two auditory cognitive processes: auditory working memory (AWM) and stream segregation. The primary hypothesis is that AWM could mediate the relationship between musical training and enhanced stream segregation capabilities. Two groups of listeners were tested: the first aimed to establish the relationship between the three variables, and the second aimed to replicate the effect in an independent sample. Music experience history and behavioural data were collected from a total of 145 healthy young adults with normal binaural hearing. The AWM task involved the manipulation of tonal patterns in working memory, while the Music-in-Noise Task (MINT) measured stream segregation abilities in a tonal context. The MINT expands measurements beyond traditional Speech-in-Noise assessments by capturing auditory subskills (rhythm, visual, spatial attention, prediction) relevant to stream segregation. Our results showed that musical training is associated with enhanced AWM and MINT performance and that this effect is replicable across independent samples. Moreover, we found in both samples that the enhancement of stream segregation was largely mediated by AWM capacity. The results suggest that musical training and/or aptitude enhances stream segregation by way of improved AWM capacity.
Keywords: auditory stream segregation, auditory working memory, Hearing-in-noise, musical training, music perception
Received: 02 Dec 2024; Accepted: 25 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Arseneau-Bruneau, Farrés Franch, Latorre, Samuels, Issa, Payumo, Rahman, Loureiro, Leung, Nave, Von Handorf, Hoddinott, Coffey, Grahn and Zatorre. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Martha Liu, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada
Robert J Zatorre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada
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