Do Physiological Responses and Personality Traits Relate to Auditory Perceptual Learning in Musicians and Non-Musicians?

Peripheral nervous system can influence learning and memory functions by increasing the activity level (‘arousal’) of the system with increasing task difficulty. Several studies show that musicians discriminate auditory stimuli more effectively both neurally and behaviourally. Yet, the effects of individual peripheral nervous responses or personality during auditory learning have not been studied in musicians. In this paper, we show preliminary evidence on physiological differences between musicians and non-musicians during auditory perceptual learning. Results suggest that musicians have higher change in skin temperature and heart rate between resting state and active auditory discriminati…