Short-Term Music Training and Auditory Processing in Older Adults
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03999606. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Most adults experience some degree of hearing loss by age 60. Hearing aids can improve some aspects of peripheral hearing but the loss of the ability to clearly perceive speech in noisy environments remains to be a significant deficit and often reduces life quality in older adults. Long-term music training has been shown to enhance auditory processing and specifically benefit speech-in-noise perception. It is not clear however whether short-term participation in a musically engaged activity can benefit such abilities in older adults. The proposed study aims to investigate whether short-term participation in a weekly community choir can improve speech in noise perception and its neural substrates as measured by sensory auditory evoked potentials (ERPs) to speech stimuli in older adults with mild to moderate subjective hearing loss. Sixty participants, ages 50-65, will be recruited to partake in this study and will be randomly assigned to two groups: participants in the experimental group will join a weekly remote choir on an on-line platform (Zoom), for ten weeks, directed by a professionally trained conductor from USC Department of Choral Music. The group practice will be accompanied by individual singing lessons (online or CDs) for home practice. Participants in the control group will be provided with weekly remote mindfulness lessons also on an on-line platform. All participants will be assessed remotely pre and post intervention, with behavioral measures of speech in noise perception and probes assessing emotional well-being and life satisfaction. Changes in auditory measures and their neural correlates and overall quality of life will be compared between the groups. The findings from this study can provide preliminary data to support a larger study on the impact of music engagement in improving the lives of older adults.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03999606
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 61 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 50 Years to 65 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Sep 30, 2020
- Primary completion
- Jan 29, 2021
- Completion
- Mar 29, 2021
- Last update posted
- May 31, 2022
2020 – 2021
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brain and Creativity Institute | Los Angeles | California | 90089 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03999606, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted May 31, 2022 · Synced Sep 2, 2026
Related: full search, browse by condition, browse by drug or therapy, browse by sponsor, browse by U.S. city.
Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03999606 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.