Musical people seem to have a special advantage when it comes to focusing in noisy environments.
A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal Science Advances, shows that individuals with music training are better at focusing their attention on important sounds while ignoring distractions.
Have you ever tried to follow a conversation in a loud room? It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of brainpower. In this study, scientists wanted to understand how music training affects this ability to focus. They looked at what happens in the brain when people listen to different sounds at the same time.
The participants were asked to listen to two melodies that were played at the same time. Each melody had a different pitch. The task was to follow the pitch changes in just one of them. The researchers used a technique called frequency tagging, which allowed them to measure how the brain responded to each melody separately.
In two experiments, one with 28 people and another with 20, the researchers tested two types of attention: top-down (which is when you consciously choose what to focus on) and bottom-up (which is your automatic reaction to new or surprising sounds).
The findings were clear: people who had musical training showed stronger brain signals for top-down attention and weaker responses to distractions.
In simple terms, musical people were better at focusing on what they wanted to hear and ignoring what they didn’t. This suggests that music training can help the brain become better at filtering out distractions.
Cassia Low Manting, the lead author of the study, explained that music training seems to improve not just hearing, but also how long the brain can stay focused. This could be useful in many areas, such as schools or therapy programs, where better attention and thinking skills are important.
Although the researchers say they can’t prove that music training directly causes these improvements, the results do support the idea that music is good for brain health. The study is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This research adds to growing evidence that learning music is not only about playing an instrument—it’s also about training your brain to focus better, think clearly, and resist distractions.
The study is published in Science Advances.
Copyright © 2025 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
