Musical experience offsets age-related delays in neural timing

Abstract

Aging disrupts neural timing, reducing the nervous system's ability to precisely encode sound. Given that the neural representation of temporal features is strengthened with musical training in young adults, can musical training offset the negative impact of aging on neural processing? By comparing auditory brainstem timing in younger and older musicians and nonmusicians to a consonant-vowel speech sound /da/. we document a musician's resilience to age-related delays in neural timing.