Atenção visual em músicos e não-músicos: um estudo comparativo

Abstract

Recognition of the influence of music on cerebral function has incited neuroscientists and musicians to investigate the connections between these two areas since the 1990s. There is now a large amount of evidence indicating that cerebral neuroplastic processes can be modified as a result of musical training, which in turn can produce behavioral differences between musicians and non-musicians. Although several studies have suggested that musical training can influence non-musical cognitive abilities in children, there have been few works investigating such an influence in adults. Some of these studies have related the existence of augmented visual abilities in musicians. The general aim of the present work was to investigate the visual attention ability in adult musicians and non-musicians. We utilized a questionnaire to characterize each individual and several neuropsychological tests to measure visual attention ability. The trail making test and digit symbol subtest of WAIS III were used specifically to allow verification of their sensitivity, regarding the purpose of this investigation. The main test, multiple choice reaction time (MCRT), consisted of specific motor action responses when various luminous stimuli were presented. In order to evaluate divided visual attention ability, the MCRT test was applied twice: the first time, situation 1, the test was used alone; the second time, situation 2, it was used concomitantly with a video containing other visual stimuli, which changed randomly. The subject was asked to respond verbally to each change as quickly as possible. In situation 1, musicians exhibited a significantly higher percentage of correct responses. In situation 2, although no significant difference was observed between the two groups, musicians showed shorter reaction timing for verbal response to video stimuli. In part A of the trail making test, musicians exhibited a significantly smaller number of errors. In part B of the trail making test, and in the digit symbol subtest of WAIS III, no significant differences were observed between the groups. These results indicate that musicians have an augmented divided visual attention ability as compared to non-musicians. This suggests that musical training may be beneficial to non-musical cognitive ability, what have implications in educational areas.