Browsing by Author "Mannermaa, Kristiina"

Previous research has linked music training to enhanced processing of unattended auditory stimuli as indexed by such auditory event-related potential (ERP) responses as mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a. Music training has also been linked with enhanced cognitive abilities more generally, and executive functions have been proposed to mediate this link. The current study concentrates on the processing of unattended auditory stimuli and how this relates to two aspects of executive functions: task-switching and inhibition. Sixty-seven music trained (music group) and non-trained (control group) adolescents and young adults were split into age groups, 14–16 year olds (younger) and 17–20 year olds (older), and compared in their performance on inhibition and task-switching task as well as the neural processing of unattended auditory stimuli. The ERPs were recorded in response to an oddball paradigm consisting of frequent major and infrequent minor chords. The music group demonstrated larger MMN and P3a amplitudes than the control group during the chord paradigm. The younger music group showed better performance in an inhibition task than the younger control group. However, no other differences in task performance were found between the groups. Also, no link between MMN or P3a and task performance was found. Therefore, the results of the current study are in line with the previous findings that music training is linked to enhanced early neural processing of unattended auditory stimuli. However, the results were partly in disagreement with previous reports of enhanced executive functions in musicians as a link between executive functions and music training was only observed in the younger participants, and only in regard to the inhibition task.