No evidence of musical training influencing the cortical contribution to the speech-FFR and its modulation through selective attention

Musicians can have better abilities to understand speech in adverse conditions such as background noise than non-musicians. However, the neural mechanisms behind such enhanced behavioral performances remain largely unclear. Studies have found that the subcortical frequency-following response to the fundamental frequency of speech and its higher harmonics (speech-FFR) may be involved since it is larger in people with musical training than in those without. Recent research has shown that the speech-FFR consists of a cortical contribution in addition to the subcortical sources. Both the subcortical and the cortical contribution are modulated by selective attention to one of two competing speakers. However, it is unknown whether the strength of the cortical contribution to the speech-FFR, or its attention modulation, is influenced by musical training. Here we investigate these issues through magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings of 52 subjects (18 musicians, 25 non-musicians, and 9 neutral participants) listening to two competing male speakers while selectively attending one of them. The speech-in-noise comprehension abilities of the participants were not assessed. We find that musicians and non-musicians display comparable cortical speech-FFRs and additionally exhibit similar subject-to-subject variability in the response. Furthermore, we also do not observe a difference in the modulation of the neural response through selective attention between musicians and non-musicians. Moreover, when assessing whether the cortical speech-FFRs are influenced by particular aspects of musical training, no significant effects emerged. Taken together, we did not find any effect of musical training on the cortical speech-FFR. Significance statementIn previous research musicians have been found to exhibit larger subcortical responses to the pitch of a speaker than non-musicians. These larger responses may reflect enhanced pitch processing due to musical training and may explain why musicians tend to understand speech better in noisy environments than people without musical training. However, higher-level cortical responses to the pitch of a voice exist as well and are influenced by attention. We show here that, unlike the subcortical responses, the cortical activities do not differ between musicians and non-musicians. The attentional effects are not influenced by musical training. Our results suggest that, unlike the subcortical response, the cortical response to pitch is not shaped by musical training.