The ability to focus on specific features of speech or music can enhance our level of attention overall and help us capture more information. By creating a tunnel of auditory attention, we can better listen for the onset and offset of specific words or sounds, even without realizing it.
The human brain sets up a cone of auditory attention to listen for the onset and offset of words without realizing it, which can be used to remember specific information or people's names. While paying strong attention to something can help retention, it also burns a lot of energy, including glucose, even for those on a ketogenic diet.
Research has shown that deliberately encoding auditory information can be beneficial for learning and activate neuroplasticity in the brain, particularly through the attentional system. Techniques like these have been used to treat auditory learning disorders and even stuttering.
The brain can change in adulthood, according to the work of Recanzone and Mersinac, and focusing on specific cues within speech or sound can help with learning and remapping tonotopic maps in the cortex.
This episode discusses the mechanisms of the cocktail party effect, cueing of attention to particular features of speech, and how paying attention to certain elements increases our level of attention overall.