Sight-reading is a skill required by musicians when they perform sheet music unknown to them. It demands sequential anticipatory eye fixation of notes immediately followed by motor execution. The distance between eye (fixation of a note) and hand position (tapping the corresponding key) is called eye-hand span (EHS). The aim of our study was to investigate the influence of practice, playing tempo and complexity of the music on the size of the EHS, as well as its relation to performance and cognitive skills (shape recognition, working memory, and mental speed). We used a sight-reading paradigm where nine pianists accompanied a pre-recorded flute voice, which also served as a timekeeper. After a practice phase, a second measurement of the EHS with same tempo and a third and fourth measurement with a different playing tempo followed. We found that the practice phase only slightly affected the EHS but that the EHS significantly changed according to playing tempo and complexity of the music. Furthermore the EHS correlated with quality of performance after practice and mental speed skills. Hence we conclude that the EHS seems to be characteristic for each musician, is developed over years of practice and is relatively independent of a short practice phase.
Age-related hearing loss is associated with a decrease in hearing abilities for high frequencies. This increases not only the difficulty to understand speech but also the experienced listening effort. Task based neuroimaging studies in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired participants show an increased frontal activation during effortful speech perception in the hearing-impaired. Whether the increased effort in everyday listening in hearing-impaired even impacts functional brain connectivity at rest is unknown. Nineteen normal-hearing and nineteen hearing-impaired participants with mild to moderate hearing loss participated in the study. Hearing abilities, listening effort and resting state functional connectivity were assessed. Our results indicate no differences in functional connectivity between hearing-impaired and normal-hearing participants. Increased listening effort, however, was related to significantly decreased functional connectivity between the dorsal attention network and the precuneus and superior parietal lobule as well as between the auditory and the inferior frontal cortex. We conclude that already mild to moderate age-related hearing loss can impact resting state functional connectivity. It is however not the hearing loss itself but the individually perceived listening effort that relates to functional connectivity changes.
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