AIISH study links continuous musical training to ten-year delay in hearing decline
Researchers evaluated speech perception in noise across cohorts and found musicians retained auditory filtering capacity a decade longer.
Continuous musical training could delay the age-related decline in speech perception in noise by approximately ten years, according to a study by the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing published in the Journal of Otology in April 2025, reports ad-hoc-news.de ad-hoc-news.de
ad-hoc-news.dead-hoc-news.deOpen source ↗. The researchers evaluated two cohorts: 75 musicians and 75 non-musicians, with participants ranging in age from their 10s to their 50s. A standard hearing test yielding normal baseline results was an inclusion criterion for all subjects.
Audiometric baseline and complex signal processing
Standard pure-tone audiometry and inner ear function assessments showed no significant differences between the two cohorts. Baseline hearing thresholds remained at comparable levels regardless of musical background. Differences emerged under complex audiometric demands: musicians performed consistently better than non-musicians in speech-perception-in-noise tasks across all age brackets.
Cohort differences across middle age
The discrepancy became particularly pronounced in middle-aged participants. Non-musicians showed a sharp decline in the ability to filter speech from ambient noise beginning in their 40s, whereas this decline appeared in musicians only from their 50s onward. From this shifted trajectory, the investigators deduced an offset in functional decline of about ten years. The team noted that the cross-sectional study design limits causal claims, and longitudinal studies are required to confirm the extent of neuroacoustic preservation.
