Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Feb 1;151(2):95-96.
doi: 10.1001/jamaoto.2024.4157.

Musicality as a Health-Relevant Factor for Hearing Outcomes

Srishti Nayak  1   2 , Aaron C Moberly  1   3 , Terrin N Tamati  1   3
Affiliations

Musicality as a Health-Relevant Factor for Hearing Outcomes

Srishti Nayak et al. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. .
No abstract available

Plain language summary

This Viewpoint discusses the need for new tools for early risk detection of age-related hearing loss and precision medicine in hearing health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest Disclosures

SN and TNT have no conflicts of interest to disclose. ACM is Chief Medical Officer, and on the Board of Directors for Otologic Technologies. ACM is a paid consultant for Amgen.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. A new framework for examining relationships between human musicality and hearing health.
Traditional views on relationships between musicality (including musical abilities and engagement levels) and hearing are represented in panels A and B. Panel C shows the novel hypothesis we argue for here, based on the Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) framework. Panel D represents the MAPLE framework, which posits that shared genetic architecture (i.e. genetic pleiotropy) underlies positive correlations found between musicality and communication traits (including hearing and speech perception outcomes). Biological effects of these shared genes are thought to be exerted through sensorineural auditory mechanisms and sensorimotor mechanisms, which in turn interact with environmental influences, to shape both musicality and communication traits across the lifespan. Figure in panel D is adapted from Nayak et al. (2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Coffey EB, Mogilever NB, & Zatorre RJ (2017). Speech-in-noise perception in musicians: A review. Hearing Research, 352, 49–69. - PubMed
    1. Gordon RL, Martschenko DO, Nayak S, Niarchou M, Morrison MD, Bell E, … & Davis LK (2023). Confronting ethical and social issues related to the genetics of musicality. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1522(1), 5–14. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Le TN, Straatman LV, Lea J, Westerberg B. Current insights in noise-induced hearing loss: a literature review of the underlying mechanism, pathophysiology, asymmetry, and management options. Journal of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. 2017. Jan;46(1):41. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mankel K, & Bidelman GM (2018). Inherent auditory skills rather than formal music training shape the neural encoding of speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(51), 13129–13134. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nayak S, Coleman PL, Ladányi E, Nitin R, Gustavson DE, Fisher SE, … & Gordon RL (2022). The musical abilities, pleiotropy, language, and environment (MAPLE) framework for understanding musicality-language links across the lifespan. Neurobiology of Language, 3(4), 615–664. - PMC - PubMed