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It is plausible that learning a musical instrument would make you more sensitive to subtleties in musical sounds such as pitch, melody, rhythm, and harmony.  Certainly by learning to tune our instruments we'd be better at detecting consonance or dissonance.  But is it possible that musical experience makes us more sensitive to sounds in general?  Furthermore, could it be possible that learning the play a musical instrument could make you more sensitive to detecting the emotions in a sound?  Like me, you might be a bit surprised by the conclusions of this recent scientific study.  But after reading a bit more, it started to make sense. Northwestern University researchers published a study called "Musical Experience and Neural Efficiency: Effects of Training on Subcortical Processing of Vocal Expressions in Emotion" which suggests that musical training does indeed enhance an individuals ability to recognize motion in sound.  We know that the the emotion carried in the way we say a ...