We assessed fatigue's effect on temporal resolution and speech perception in noise abilities in trained instrumental musicians. In a pretest-posttest quasiexperimental research design, trained instrumental musicians (n = 39) and theater artists as nonmusicians (n = 37) participated. Fatigue was measured using a visual analog scale (VAS) under eight fatigue categories. The temporal release of masking measured the temporal resolution, and auditory stream segregation assessed speech perception in noise. Entire testing was carried out at two time-points: before and after rehearsal. Each participant rehearsed for five to six hours: musicians playing musical instruments and theater artists conducted stage practice. The results revealed significantly lower VAS scores for both musicians and nonmusicians after rehearsal, indicating that both musicians and nonmusicians were fatigued after rehearsal. The musicians had higher scores for temporal release of masking and lower scores for auditory stream segregation abilities than nonmusicians in the pre-fatigue condition, indicating musicians’ edge in auditory processing abilities. However, no such differences in the scores of musicians and nonmusicians were observed in the post-fatigue testing. The results were inferred as the music training related advantage in temporal resolution, and speech perception in noise might have been reduced due to fatigue. In the end, we recommend that musicians consider fatigue a significant factor, as it might affect their performance in auditory processing tasks. Future researchers must also consider fatigue as a variable while measuring auditory processing in musicians. However, we restricted the auditory processing to temporal resolution and speech perception in noise only. Generalizing these results to other auditory processes requires further investigation.

中文翻译：

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主观疲劳对音乐家和非音乐家听觉处理的影响

我们评估了疲劳对训练有素的乐器演奏者噪声能力的时间分辨率和语音感知的影响。在一项前测后测准实验研究设计中，受过训练的器乐演奏家 (n = 39) 和非音乐家的戏剧艺术家 (n = 37) 参与其中。疲劳是使用视觉模拟量表 (VAS) 在八种疲劳类别下测量的。掩蔽的时间释放测量了时间分辨率，听觉流分离评估了噪声中的语音感知。整个测试在两个时间点进行：排练前和排练后。每个参与者排练五到六个小时：音乐家演奏乐器和戏剧艺术家进行舞台练习。结果显示，排练后音乐家和非音乐家的 VAS 分数显着降低，表明音乐家和非音乐家在排练后都感到疲倦。与非音乐家相比，在疲劳前的情况下，音乐家在掩蔽的时间释放方面得分较高，而在听觉流分离能力方面得分较低，表明音乐家在听觉处理能力方面具有优势。然而，在疲劳后测试中没有观察到音乐家和非音乐家的分数存在这种差异。结果被推断为音乐训练在时间分辨率方面的相关优势，而噪声中的语音感知可能由于疲劳而降低。最后，我们建议音乐家将疲劳视为一个重要因素，因为它可能会影响他们在听觉处理任务中的表现。未来的研究人员在测量音乐家的听觉处理时还必须将疲劳视为一个变量。然而，我们将听觉处理限制为仅在噪声中的时间分辨率和语音感知。将这些结果推广到其他听觉过程需要进一步调查。