Aging & Music Perception

One of the most common complaints in older adults is difficulty hearing speech in noisy environments. As it becomes more difficult to do, it also becomes more tiring, which in turn reduces one's energy for social engagements. Loneliness is also an issue in older adults.

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Encouragingly, older musicians have been shown to have speech-in-noise perception similar to non-musicians 20 years younger, despite having similar hearing loss. In other words, hearing may worsen for everyone, but listening is a skill that can be trained and maintained. That being said, not everyone is a musician, and what about older adults now who have not practiced music their whole lives?

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This project studies a series of cognitive skills in the context of music perception in order to better understand what is or is not maintained. Using this information, the goal is to develop a music-based training programme that efficiently trains the skills most critical to speech-in-noise perception. So far, the cognitive skills investigated include auditory streaming and memory, with plans to investigate divided attention.

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This project can be suited to all levels of study and may include investigating additional cognitive skills (BSc, MSc); replicating existing work (BSc, MSc); qualitative and/or community-based investigation into older adults' experiences of music perception, needs, motivations and/or game preferences (BSc, MSc, PhD); and fully developing and testing a training programme (PhD).

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The project's most recent (2024) publication has already received significant media attention, including coverage in French, German and Russian. Sarah spoke to Bianca Nogrady for this piece in Scientific American.

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