Stream segregation, musical abilities, and the development of speech perception in noise.

Abstract

Nonlinguistic auditory abilities (e.g., stream segregation, musical perceptual abilities) are thought to contribute to speech perception in noise. How their development interacts with that of speech perception in noise remains unknown. Here, we aimed to (i) investigate the development of speech perception in noise and stream segregation and (ii) explore the relationship between musical abilities, stream segregation, and speech perception in noise throughout development. Our results confirmed the protracted developmental trajectory of both stream segregation and speech perception in noise. Importantly, they suggest that musical perceptual abilities indirectly contribute to speech perception in noise by means of improved stream segregation.