Müzisyenlerde Dinleme Eforunun Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

The effect of musical experience on listening effort processes is among the controversial issues in the literature. Considering this uncertainty in the literature, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of musical experience on listening effort processes by comparatively examining the listening effort experienced in challenging communication environments in musicians and adults with no musical experience. In this way, it is purpose to investigate the effect of music experience on listening effort processes. The sample of the study consists of 15 participants with normal hearing for the study group consisting of musicians and 16 participants with normal hearing for the control group consisting of no musical experience adults. After the hearing thresholds of all participants were evaluated by pure tone audiometry, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test was administered to the participants to confirm normal cognitive function. Listening effort evaluations were carried out with the participants who applied the Turkish Matrix Test to evaluate speech understanding performance in noise. In listening effort evaluations, EEG from the central nervous system and pupillometry measurements from the autonomic nervous system were performed simultaneously. According to the results of the study, there was no difference between the two groups in terms of speech understanding performance in noise. However, a larger alpha power in EEG and a lower pupil size increase in pupillometry were obtained in the study group, reflecting less listening effort compared to the control group. No correlation was found between speech understanding performance in noise and listening effort. The results showed musical experience had a positive effect on listening effort in challenging listening conditions. It is thought that the evidence presented by this study that musical experience modulates auditory, cognitive, and neural responses may contribute to a better understanding of complex listening effort mechanisms.