Behavioral and electrophysiological findings of central auditory processing in children and adolescents undergoing musical training

Gindri, Bruna de Franceschi Schirmer; Wagner, Tainara Milbradt Weich; Frizzo, Ana Cláudia Figueiredo; Biaggio, Eliara Pinto Vieira

doi:10.1590/2317-1782/e20240318en

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Systematic Review • CoDAS 38 (3) • 2026 • https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-1782/e20240318en linkcopy

Behavioral and electrophysiological findings of central auditory processing in children and adolescents undergoing musical training

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Purpose This study analyzes the outcomes of behavioral and electrophysiological assessments of central auditory processing in children and adolescents undergoing musical training through clinical protocols or structured educational methods.

Research strategies A systematic search was conducted in three electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus) between April and June 2024. Two researchers independently applied the following search terms combined with the Boolean operator "AND": "musical training," "child," and "adolescent."

Selection criteria The PICOS framework guided the selection process, focusing on population (children and adolescents), intervention (musical training), comparison (with non-trained groups), outcome (central auditory processing effects), and study design (cohort, case-control, and randomized clinical trials).

Data analysis Data were extracted and tabulated by the researchers and analyzed descriptively. Methodological quality was assessed using the NHLBI Quality Assessment Tool.

Results Among 800 initial publications, five duplicates were removed. Of the remaining 795 studies, 783 did not meet the inclusion criteria. A full-text review of 12 studies led to the exclusion of one due to unavailability and four due to quality issues. Ultimately, seven articles were included.

Conclusion The results highlight improvements in sound discrimination, speech-in-noise processing, environmental sound change detection, and selective attention. These findings underscore the necessity of avoiding overly brief training programs.

Keywords:
Child; Adolescent; Hearing; Auditory Perceptual Disorders; Neuronal Plasticity

Authors and country	Objective	Sample size and age	Intervention/exposure procedure	Testing procedure	Main results
Chen et al.(²³), Taiwan	Investigating whether previous musical training improves pitch perception in implanted children.	27 pre-lingual deaf children (5–14 years).	Training in listening, singing, reading sheet music, and playing a musical instrument.	Auditory discrimination test with sequential piano tones.	Auditory discrimination increases with musical experience, and the longer the musical training, the better the results are for this auditory skill.
Strait et al.(²⁴), USA	To define associations between musical training during early childhood and subcortical speech coding in silence and noise, speech perception in noise, and memory and attention.	31 children with normal hearing (7–13 years).	Musical experience in early childhood (children who have practiced consistently for at least four years musical activities, with at least 20 minutes at least five days a week)	Words in noise test; the hearing in noise test; frequency-following response with and without noise; auditory and visual memory tests	Musically trained children have better speech perception in competitive noise, as well as in auditory working memory and auditory and visual attention tasks. Neural coding of speech, in both silence and noise, is also better in this group.
Putkinen et al.(²⁵), Finland	To longitudinally investigate the development of auditory discrimination skills in musically trained and untrained individuals.	133 children with normal hearing (7–13 years).	Playing a musical instrument, practicing choir and orchestra, and studying music theory from the age of seven as part of the daily school curriculum.	Mismatch negativity and P3a.	The study provides strong evidence that musical training increases neural auditory discrimination and attention.
Slater et al.(²⁶), USA	Longitudinal evaluation of the effect of group auditory training on speech perception in noise.	38 children with normal hearing (average of 8 years).	Musical training with activities to develop fundamental skills in tuning and rhythm, vocal performance, and musical instrument practice, among others, was carried out twice a week, for 1 hour, for over 2 years.	The hearing in noise test.	Long-term musical auditory training provided clinically significant results in understanding speech in noise.
Petersen et al.(²⁷), Denmark	Evaluating the benefits of a short, intense musical training program for adolescent cochlear implant users.	11 pre-lingual deaf adolescents (15.6–18.8 years).	The music training program combines computerized exercises with rhythm training, singing, and ear training activities (20 hours, scheduled over six days and spread over two weeks).	Multi-feature music discrimination test, Dantale II test (lists of sentences in noise adapted for the Danish language), and mismatch negativity.	No neuronal and behavioral discrimination improvement was observed after the proposed musical training.
Habibi et al.(¹⁵), USA	To investigate the effects of a musical training program on the auditory development of children compared to children with sports training and no training in a longitudinal way.	37 children with normal hearing (6–7 years).	Musical training (six to seven hours a week for two years).	Long latency auditory evoked potentials.	The musically trained children showed a greater ability to detect changes in the tonal environment and accelerated maturation of auditory processing compared to those in the other two non-musically trained groups.
Putkinen et al.(¹⁷), Finland	To examine the maturation of selective attention in musically trained and untrained children and adolescents.	146 children and adolescents with normal hearing (10–17 years).	Individual instrument lessons, group music lessons, and music theory from age 7.	Mismatch negativity and P3a	The results provide new convergent behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of an intermodal paradigm for the accelerated maturation of selective attention in musically trained children and adolescents.

Year	Authors	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7	Q8	Q9	Q10	Q11	Q12	Q13	Q14	Quality
2010	Chen et al.(²³)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Good
2012	Strait et al.(²⁴)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Good
2014	Putkinen et al.(²⁵)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Good
2015	Slater et al.(²⁶)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Good
2015	Petersen et al.(²⁷)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Good
2016	Habibi et al.(¹⁵)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Good
2021	Putkinen et al.(¹⁷)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Y	NR	Y	Y	Good

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[1] Caption: Q = question; Y = yes; NR = not reported