Effects of Music on Cognition Function and Speech Perception: A Literature Review

Music is related with many aspects of brain activity, such as perception, cognition, memory, and learning, thus it is an appropriate instrument to study cognition and function of various aspects of brain. Cognition is one of the important dimensions of central neural system that has recently attracted researchers. Previous studies have shown that learning music can probably reinforce and evolve neural tracks and has positive effects on speech perception, especially in noisy and challenging situations. The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of music on cognition function and speech perception based on the existing clinical researches. Using keywords such as cognition, memory, music, and speech perception, five major databases, including, GoogleScholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scoppus, and SID were searched for relevant papers published between 2000-2018. The search resulted in selection of 38 relevant studies. Review of the studies showed that music has a positive effect on cognition and cognitive components such as memory, attention, and executive functions, as well as speech perception and its components, such as formants and syllables. Also, the results of the studies that examined cognitive functions and speech perception simultaneously in musicians and non-musicians showed that musicians with better cognitive function had better speech comprehension capabilities in noisy situations. Most of the studies indicated that there is a relationship among music, improvement of cognition functions, and speech perception. Playing music is not only production and perception of sounds, but also there is a correlation between these sounds and it can alter cognitive functions. Playing music can also cause improvement in auditory processing and it results in better perception of speech in complex auditory situations. In fact, it seems that playing music enhances the cooperation between high level of perception and cognitive processing.