News Finding: "What this shows is we can be trained, in effect, to make more efficient use of our auditory-detection systems," observes study coauthor David Poeppel, a professor in psychology department and Center for Neural Science and director of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt.
Paper Finding: New data will be required to dissociate between these interpretations.
News Context: Not surprisingly, the study found that musicians have more potent oscillatory mechanisms than do non-musicians--but this discovery's importance goes beyond the value of musical instruction. "What this shows is we can be trained, in effect, to make more efficient use of our auditory-detection systems," observes study coauthor David Poeppel, a professor in psychology department and Center for Neural Science and director of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt. "Musicians, through their experience, are simply better at this type of processing."
Paper Context: This interpretation, although not definitive, demonstrates the temporal structure that an oscillatory mechanism might impose onto the processing of an auditory signal. New data will be required to dissociate between these interpretations. We show that cortical entrainment is enhanced with years of musical training.