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. 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.

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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

References

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    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