The association of noise sensitivity with musical aptitude and everyday use of music

We aimed to study if noise sensitivity is associated with musical aptitude and everyday use of music. A total of 197 participants was recruited in Finland (N=91; 44 men, 47 women) and in Italy (N=106; 10 men, 96 women). The age range was from 19 to 56 years. We administered questionnaires and listening tests both online and in laboratory. Noise sensitivity was studied using the Weinstein's Noise Sensitivity Scale. Musical aptitude was tested with Seashore tests for Pitch and Time and Montreal Battery of Evaluation Amusia (MBEA). The correlation test did not show significant relationship between noise sensitivity and performance in Seashore test for Time. The correlation between noise sensitivity and the results on Pitch subscale was marginally significant indicating that subjects with lower noise sensitivity tend to perform better on pitch discrimination task. No significant correlations were found between noise sensitivity and MBEA scores. Noise sensitivity was negatively correlated with the amount of passive music listening meaning that subjects with higher noise sensitivity use music as a background more seldom than subjects with lower noise sensitivity. No association was found between noise sensitivity and the amount of active music listening a week.