Music to my ears

Abstract

Both psychoacoustic and cochlear measurements of frequency selectivity in humans indicate that persons with substantial active musical experience can show higher selectivity values. The influence of experience on neural networks in the brain is compatible with what is known about learning and development and thus changes in frequency selectivity of elements in the auditory pathway. Assumed changes in cochlear selectivity as the result of experience, however, lack both any known anatomical substrate and precedent. Here, the data interpretations of Bidelmann et al. (2016) are questioned as not being parsimonious, and the suggestion is raised that in fact there are no changes in the cochlea of musicians. Instead, within the assumed large range of differences in human cochlear length, those persons with innately better cochlear selectivity are more likely to take up music as a career or pastime.