1
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Harris I, Niven EC, Griffin A, Scott SK. Is song processing distinct and special in the auditory cortex? Nat Rev Neurosci 2023; 24:711-722. [PMID: 37783820 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-023-00743-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/04/2023]
Abstract
Is the singing voice processed distinctively in the human brain? In this Perspective, we discuss what might distinguish song processing from speech processing in light of recent work suggesting that some cortical neuronal populations respond selectively to song and we outline the implications for our understanding of auditory processing. We review the literature regarding the neural and physiological mechanisms of song production and perception and show that this provides evidence for key differences between song and speech processing. We conclude by discussing the significance of the notion that song processing is special in terms of how this might contribute to theories of the neurobiological origins of vocal communication and to our understanding of the neural circuitry underlying sound processing in the human cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilana Harris
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
| | - Efe C Niven
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
| | - Alex Griffin
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Sophie K Scott
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
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2
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Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden CM, Joanisse MF, Grahn JA, Snijders TM, Schoffelen JM. Familiarity modulates neural tracking of sung and spoken utterances. Neuroimage 2022; 252:119049. [PMID: 35248707 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Revised: 02/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/01/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Music is often described in the laboratory and in the classroom as a beneficial tool for memory encoding and retention, with a particularly strong effect when words are sung to familiar compared to unfamiliar melodies. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this memory benefit, especially for benefits related to familiar music are not well understood. The current study examined whether neural tracking of the slow syllable rhythms of speech and song is modulated by melody familiarity. Participants became familiar with twelve novel melodies over four days prior to MEG testing. Neural tracking of the same utterances spoken and sung revealed greater cerebro-acoustic phase coherence for sung compared to spoken utterances, but did not show an effect of familiar melody when stimuli were grouped by their assigned (trained) familiarity. However, when participant's subjective ratings of perceived familiarity were used to group stimuli, a large effect of familiarity was observed. This effect was not specific to song, as it was observed in both sung and spoken utterances. Exploratory analyses revealed some in-session learning of unfamiliar and spoken utterances, with increased neural tracking for untrained stimuli by the end of the MEG testing session. Our results indicate that top-down factors like familiarity are strong modulators of neural tracking for music and language. Participants' neural tracking was related to their perception of familiarity, which was likely driven by a combination of effects from repeated listening, stimulus-specific melodic simplicity, and individual differences. Beyond simply the acoustic features of music, top-down factors built into the music listening experience, like repetition and familiarity, play a large role in the way we attend to and encode information presented in a musical context.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marc F Joanisse
- The Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Psychology Department, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jessica A Grahn
- The Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Psychology Department, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Tineke M Snijders
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, the Netherlands
| | - Jan-Mathijs Schoffelen
- Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, the Netherlands.
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3
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Durojaye C, Fink L, Roeske T, Wald-Fuhrmann M, Larrouy-Maestri P. Perception of Nigerian Dùndún Talking Drum Performances as Speech-Like vs. Music-Like: The Role of Familiarity and Acoustic Cues. Front Psychol 2021; 12:652673. [PMID: 34093341 PMCID: PMC8173200 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.652673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 04/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
It seems trivial to identify sound sequences as music or speech, particularly when the sequences come from different sound sources, such as an orchestra and a human voice. Can we also easily distinguish these categories when the sequence comes from the same sound source? On the basis of which acoustic features? We investigated these questions by examining listeners’ classification of sound sequences performed by an instrument intertwining both speech and music: the dùndún talking drum. The dùndún is commonly used in south-west Nigeria as a musical instrument but is also perfectly fit for linguistic usage in what has been described as speech surrogates in Africa. One hundred seven participants from diverse geographical locations (15 different mother tongues represented) took part in an online experiment. Fifty-one participants reported being familiar with the dùndún talking drum, 55% of those being speakers of Yorùbá. During the experiment, participants listened to 30 dùndún samples of about 7s long, performed either as music or Yorùbá speech surrogate (n = 15 each) by a professional musician, and were asked to classify each sample as music or speech-like. The classification task revealed the ability of the listeners to identify the samples as intended by the performer, particularly when they were familiar with the dùndún, though even unfamiliar participants performed above chance. A logistic regression predicting participants’ classification of the samples from several acoustic features confirmed the perceptual relevance of intensity, pitch, timbre, and timing measures and their interaction with listener familiarity. In all, this study provides empirical evidence supporting the discriminating role of acoustic features and the modulatory role of familiarity in teasing apart speech and music.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Durojaye
- Department of Music, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
| | - Lauren Fink
- Department of Music, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Max Planck-NYU, Center for Language, Music, and Emotion, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Tina Roeske
- Department of Music, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann
- Department of Music, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Max Planck-NYU, Center for Language, Music, and Emotion, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Pauline Larrouy-Maestri
- Max Planck-NYU, Center for Language, Music, and Emotion, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Neuroscience Department, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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4
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Mullin HAC, Norkey EA, Kodwani A, Vitevitch MS, Castro N. Does age affect perception of the Speech-to-Song Illusion? PLoS One 2021; 16:e0250042. [PMID: 33872326 PMCID: PMC8055000 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The Speech-to-Song Illusion is an auditory illusion that occurs when a spoken phrase is repeatedly presented. After several presentations, listeners report that the phrase seems to be sung rather than spoken. Previous work [1] indicates that the mechanisms-priming, activation, and satiation-found in the language processing model, Node Structure Theory (NST), may account for the Speech-to-Song Illusion. NST also accounts for other language-related phenomena, including increased experiences in older adults of the tip-of-the-tongue state (where you know a word, but can't retrieve it). Based on the mechanism in NST used to account for the age-related increase in the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, we predicted that older adults may be less likely to experience the Speech-to-Song Illusion than younger adults. Adults of a wide range of ages heard a stimulus known to evoke the Speech-to-Song Illusion. Then, they were asked to indicate if they experienced the illusion or not (Study 1), to respond using a 5-point song-likeness rating scale (Study 2), or to indicate when the percept changed from speech to song (Study 3). The results of these studies suggest that the illusion is experienced with similar frequency and strength, and after the same number of repetitions by adult listeners regardless of age.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Evan A. Norkey
- University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States of America
| | - Anisha Kodwani
- University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States of America
| | | | - Nichol Castro
- University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States of America
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5
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Music as a scaffold for listening to speech: Better neural phase-locking to song than speech. Neuroimage 2020; 214:116767. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116767] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2019] [Revised: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 03/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
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6
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Caccia M, Lorusso ML. The processing of rhythmic structures in music and prosody by children with developmental dyslexia and developmental language disorder. Dev Sci 2020; 24:e12981. [PMID: 32356924 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2019] [Revised: 04/08/2020] [Accepted: 04/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Rhythm perception seems to be crucial to language development. Many studies have shown that children with developmental dyslexia and developmental language disorder have difficulties in processing rhythmic structures. In this study, we investigated the relationships between prosody and musical processing in Italian children with typical and atypical development. The tasks aimed to reproduce linguistic prosodic structures through musical sequences, offering a direct comparison between the two domains without violating the specificities of each one. About 16 Typically Developing children, 16 children with a diagnosis of Developmental Dyslexia, and 16 with a diagnosis of developmental language disorder (age 10-13 years) participated in the experimental study. Three tasks were administered: an association task between a sentence and its humming version, a stress discrimination task (between couples of sounds reproducing the intonation of Italian trisyllabic words), and an association task between trisyllabic nonwords with different stress position and three-notes musical sequences with different musical stress. Children with developmental language disorder perform significantly lower than Typically Developing children on the humming test. By contrast, children with developmental dyslexia are significantly slower than TD in associating nonwords with musical sequences. Accuracy and speed in the experimental tests correlate with metaphonological, language, and word reading scores. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed within a multidimensional model of neurodevelopmental disorders including prosodic and rhythmic skills at word and sentence level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Caccia
- Unit of Child Psychopathology - Neurodevelopmental Disorders of Language and Learning, Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy.,School of Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia - Center of Neurocognition, Epistemology and Theoretical Syntax (NETS), Pavia, Italy
| | - Maria Luisa Lorusso
- Unit of Child Psychopathology - Neurodevelopmental Disorders of Language and Learning, Scientific Institute IRCCS E. Medea, Bosisio Parini, Italy
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7
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Groenveld G, Burgoyne JA, Sadakata M. I still hear a melody: investigating temporal dynamics of the Speech-to-Song Illusion. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2019; 84:1451-1459. [PMID: 30627768 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-1135-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2018] [Accepted: 12/10/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
The Speech-to-Song Illusion (STS) refers to a dramatic shift in our perception of short speech fragments which, when repeatedly presented, may start to sound-like song. Anecdotally, once it is perceived as a song, it is difficult to unhear the melody of a speech fragment, and such temporal dynamics of the STS illusion has theoretical implications. The goal of the current study is to capture this temporal effect. In our experiment, speech fragments that initially did not elicit the STS illusion were manipulated to have increasingly stable F0 contours to strengthen the perceived 'song-likeness' of a fragment. Over the course of trials, the speech fragments with manipulated contours were repeatedly presented within blocks of decreasing, increasing, or random orders of F0 manipulations. Results showed that a presentation order where participants first heard the sentence with the maximum amount of F0 manipulations (decreasing condition) resulted in participants continuously giving higher overall song-like ratings than other presentation orders (increasing or random conditions). Our results thus capture the commonly reported phenomenon that it is hard to 'unhear' the illusion once a speech segment has been perceived as song.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerben Groenveld
- Musicology Department, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - John Ashley Burgoyne
- Musicology Department, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Makiko Sadakata
- Musicology Department, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. .,Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. .,Artificial Intelligence Department, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
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8
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Castro N, Mendoza JM, Tampke EC, Vitevitch MS. An account of the Speech-to-Song Illusion using Node Structure Theory. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0198656. [PMID: 29883451 PMCID: PMC5993277 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2017] [Accepted: 05/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
In the Speech-to-Song Illusion, repetition of a spoken phrase results in it being perceived as if it were sung. Although a number of previous studies have examined which characteristics of the stimulus will produce the illusion, there is, until now, no description of the cognitive mechanism that underlies the illusion. We suggest that the processes found in Node Structure Theory that are used to explain normal language processing as well as other auditory illusions might also account for the Speech-to-Song Illusion. In six experiments we tested whether the satiation of lexical nodes, but continued priming of syllable nodes may lead to the Speech-to-Song Illusion. The results of these experiments provide evidence for the role of priming, activation, and satiation as described in Node Structure Theory as an explanation of the Speech-to-Song Illusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nichol Castro
- Spoken Language Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
| | - Joshua M. Mendoza
- Spoken Language Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
| | - Elizabeth C. Tampke
- Spoken Language Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
| | - Michael S. Vitevitch
- Spoken Language Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
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9
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Graber E, Simchy-Gross R, Margulis EH. Musical and linguistic listening modes in the speech-to-song illusion bias timing perception and absolute pitch memory. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2017; 142:3593. [PMID: 29289094 DOI: 10.1121/1.5016806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The speech-to-song (STS) illusion is a phenomenon in which some spoken utterances perceptually transform to song after repetition [Deutsch, Henthorn, and Lapidis (2011). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 129, 2245-2252]. Tierney, Dick, Deutsch, and Sereno [(2013). Cereb. Cortex. 23, 249-254] developed a set of stimuli where half tend to transform to perceived song with repetition and half do not. Those that transform and those that do not can be understood to induce a musical or linguistic mode of listening, respectively. By comparing performance on perceptual tasks related to transforming and non-transforming utterances, the current study examines whether the musical mode of listening entails higher sensitivity to temporal regularity and better absolute pitch (AP) memory compared to the linguistic mode. In experiment 1, inter-stimulus intervals within STS trials were steady, slightly variable, or highly variable. Participants reported how temporally regular utterance entrances were. In experiment 2, participants performed an AP memory task after a blocked STS exposure phase. Utterances identically matching those used in the exposure phase were targets among transposed distractors in the test phase. Results indicate that listeners exhibit heightened awareness of temporal manipulations but reduced awareness of AP manipulations to transforming utterances. This methodology establishes a framework for implicitly differentiating musical from linguistic perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Graber
- Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University, 660 Lomita Court, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Rhimmon Simchy-Gross
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA
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10
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Merrill J, Larrouy-Maestri P. Vocal Features of Song and Speech: Insights from Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1108. [PMID: 28744233 PMCID: PMC5504174 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Accepted: 06/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Similarities and differences between speech and song are often examined. However, the perceptual definition of these two types of vocalization is challenging. Indeed, the prototypical characteristics of speech or song support top-down processes, which influence listeners' perception of acoustic information. In order to examine vocal features associated with speaking and singing, we propose an innovative approach designed to facilitate bottom-up mechanisms in perceiving vocalizations by using material situated between speech and song: Speechsong. 25 participants were asked to evaluate 20 performances of a speechsong composition by Arnold Schoenberg, “Pierrot lunaire” op. 21 from 1912, evaluating 20 features of vocal-articulatory expression. Raters provided reliable judgments concerning the vocal features used by the performers and did not show strong appeal or specific expectations in reference to Schoenberg's piece. By examining the relationship between the vocal features and the impression of song or speech, the results confirm the importance of pitch (height, contour, range), but also point to the relevance of register, timbre, tension and faucal distance. Besides highlighting vocal features associated with speech and song, this study supports the relevance of the present approach of focusing on a theoretical middle category in order to better understand vocal expression in song and speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Merrill
- Music Department, Max Planck Institute for Empirical AestheticsFrankfurt, Germany.,Institute of Music, University of KasselKassel, Germany
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11
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Ravignani A, Honing H, Kotz SA. Editorial: The Evolution of Rhythm Cognition: Timing in Music and Speech. Front Hum Neurosci 2017; 11:303. [PMID: 28659775 PMCID: PMC5468413 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2017] [Accepted: 05/26/2017] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Ravignani
- Veterinary and Research Department, Sealcentre PieterburenPieterburen, Netherlands.,Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands.,Artificial Intelligence Lab, Vrije Universiteit BrusselBrussels, Belgium
| | - Henkjan Honing
- Music Cognition Group, Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation, University of AmsterdamAmsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Sonja A Kotz
- Basic and Applied NeuroDynamics Lab, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Maastricht UniversityMaastricht, Netherlands.,Department of Neuropsychology, Max-Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain SciencesLeipzig, Germany
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12
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Heald SLM, Van Hedger SC, Nusbaum HC. Perceptual Plasticity for Auditory Object Recognition. Front Psychol 2017; 8:781. [PMID: 28588524 PMCID: PMC5440584 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00781] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2016] [Accepted: 04/26/2017] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
In our auditory environment, we rarely experience the exact acoustic waveform twice. This is especially true for communicative signals that have meaning for listeners. In speech and music, the acoustic signal changes as a function of the talker (or instrument), speaking (or playing) rate, and room acoustics, to name a few factors. Yet, despite this acoustic variability, we are able to recognize a sentence or melody as the same across various kinds of acoustic inputs and determine meaning based on listening goals, expectations, context, and experience. The recognition process relates acoustic signals to prior experience despite variability in signal-relevant and signal-irrelevant acoustic properties, some of which could be considered as "noise" in service of a recognition goal. However, some acoustic variability, if systematic, is lawful and can be exploited by listeners to aid in recognition. Perceivable changes in systematic variability can herald a need for listeners to reorganize perception and reorient their attention to more immediately signal-relevant cues. This view is not incorporated currently in many extant theories of auditory perception, which traditionally reduce psychological or neural representations of perceptual objects and the processes that act on them to static entities. While this reduction is likely done for the sake of empirical tractability, such a reduction may seriously distort the perceptual process to be modeled. We argue that perceptual representations, as well as the processes underlying perception, are dynamically determined by an interaction between the uncertainty of the auditory signal and constraints of context. This suggests that the process of auditory recognition is highly context-dependent in that the identity of a given auditory object may be intrinsically tied to its preceding context. To argue for the flexible neural and psychological updating of sound-to-meaning mappings across speech and music, we draw upon examples of perceptual categories that are thought to be highly stable. This framework suggests that the process of auditory recognition cannot be divorced from the short-term context in which an auditory object is presented. Implications for auditory category acquisition and extant models of auditory perception, both cognitive and neural, are discussed.
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13
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Gordon MS. Change deafness across voices in music and language. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2016.1223244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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14
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Peretz I. Neurobiology of Congenital Amusia. Trends Cogn Sci 2016; 20:857-867. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2016] [Revised: 08/26/2016] [Accepted: 09/06/2016] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
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15
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Hannon EE, Lévêque Y, Nave KM, Trehub SE. Exaggeration of Language-Specific Rhythms in English and French Children's Songs. Front Psychol 2016; 7:939. [PMID: 27445907 PMCID: PMC4914820 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00939] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2016] [Accepted: 06/07/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The available evidence indicates that the music of a culture reflects the speech rhythm of the prevailing language. The normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI) is a measure of durational contrast between successive events that can be applied to vowels in speech and to notes in music. Music-language parallels may have implications for the acquisition of language and music, but it is unclear whether native-language rhythms are reflected in children's songs. In general, children's songs exhibit greater rhythmic regularity than adults' songs, in line with their caregiving goals and frequent coordination with rhythmic movement. Accordingly, one might expect lower nPVI values (i.e., lower variability) for such songs regardless of culture. In addition to their caregiving goals, children's songs may serve an intuitive didactic function by modeling culturally relevant content and structure for music and language. One might therefore expect pronounced rhythmic parallels between children's songs and language of origin. To evaluate these predictions, we analyzed a corpus of 269 English and French songs from folk and children's music anthologies. As in prior work, nPVI values were significantly higher for English than for French children's songs. For folk songs (i.e., songs not for children), the difference in nPVI for English and French songs was small and in the expected direction but non-significant. We subsequently collected ratings from American and French monolingual and bilingual adults, who rated their familiarity with each song, how much they liked it, and whether or not they thought it was a children's song. Listeners gave higher familiarity and liking ratings to songs from their own culture, and they gave higher familiarity and preference ratings to children's songs than to other songs. Although higher child-directedness ratings were given to children's than to folk songs, French listeners drove this effect, and their ratings were uniquely predicted by nPVI. Together, these findings suggest that language-based rhythmic structures are evident in children's songs, and that listeners expect exaggerated language-based rhythms in children's songs. The implications of these findings for enculturation processes and for the acquisition of music and language are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin E. Hannon
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada Las VegasLas Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Yohana Lévêque
- Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Lyon 1 UniversityLyon, France
| | - Karli M. Nave
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada Las VegasLas Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Sandra E. Trehub
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto MississaugaMississauga, ON, Canada
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16
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Jaisin K, Suphanchaimat R, Figueroa Candia MA, Warren JD. The Speech-to-Song Illusion Is Reduced in Speakers of Tonal (vs. Non-Tonal) Languages. Front Psychol 2016; 7:662. [PMID: 27242580 PMCID: PMC4860502 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00662] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2016] [Accepted: 04/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The speech-to-song illusion has attracted interest as a probe of the perceptual interface between language and music. One might anticipate differential speech-to-song effects in tonal vs. non-tonal languages, since these language classes differ importantly in the linguistic value they assign to tones. Here we addressed this issue for the first time in a cohort of 20 healthy younger adults whose native language was either tonal (Thai, Mandarin) or non-tonal (German, Italian) and all of whom were also fluent in English. All participants were assessed using a protocol designed to induce the speech-to-song illusion on speech excerpts presented in each of the five study languages. Over the combined participant group, there was evidence of a speech-to-song illusion effect for all language stimuli and the extent to which individual participants rated stimuli as "song-like" at baseline was significantly positively correlated with the strength of the speech-to-song effect. However, tonal and non-tonal language stimuli elicited comparable speech-to-song effects and no acoustic language parameter was found to predict the effect. Examining the effect of the listener's native language, tonal language native speakers experienced significantly weaker speech-to-song effects than non-tonal native speakers across languages. Both non-tonal native language and inability to understand the stimulus language significantly predicted the speech-to-song illusion. These findings together suggest that relative propensity to perceive prosodic structures as inherently linguistic vs. musical may modulate the speech-to-song illusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kankamol Jaisin
- Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College LondonLondon, UK; Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat UniversityBangkok, Thailand
| | - Rapeepong Suphanchaimat
- Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicineLondon, UK; International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public HealthBangkok, Thailand
| | - Mauricio A Figueroa Candia
- Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London London, UK
| | - Jason D Warren
- Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London London, UK
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Giannantonio S, Polonenko MJ, Papsin BC, Paludetti G, Gordon KA. Experience Changes How Emotion in Music Is Judged: Evidence from Children Listening with Bilateral Cochlear Implants, Bimodal Devices, and Normal Hearing. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0136685. [PMID: 26317976 PMCID: PMC4552689 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2015] [Accepted: 08/06/2015] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Children using unilateral cochlear implants abnormally rely on tempo rather than mode cues to distinguish whether a musical piece is happy or sad. This led us to question how this judgment is affected by the type of experience in early auditory development. We hypothesized that judgments of the emotional content of music would vary by the type and duration of access to sound in early life due to deafness, altered perception of musical cues through new ways of using auditory prostheses bilaterally, and formal music training during childhood. Seventy-five participants completed the Montreal Emotion Identification Test. Thirty-three had normal hearing (aged 6.6 to 40.0 years) and 42 children had hearing loss and used bilateral auditory prostheses (31 bilaterally implanted and 11 unilaterally implanted with contralateral hearing aid use). Reaction time and accuracy were measured. Accurate judgment of emotion in music was achieved across ages and musical experience. Musical training accentuated the reliance on mode cues which developed with age in the normal hearing group. Degrading pitch cues through cochlear implant-mediated hearing induced greater reliance on tempo cues, but mode cues grew in salience when at least partial acoustic information was available through some residual hearing in the contralateral ear. Finally, when pitch cues were experimentally distorted to represent cochlear implant hearing, individuals with normal hearing (including those with musical training) switched to an abnormal dependence on tempo cues. The data indicate that, in a western culture, access to acoustic hearing in early life promotes a preference for mode rather than tempo cues which is enhanced by musical training. The challenge to these preferred strategies during cochlear implant hearing (simulated and real), regardless of musical training, suggests that access to pitch cues for children with hearing loss must be improved by preservation of residual hearing and improvements in cochlear implant technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Giannantonio
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Institute of Otorhinolaryngology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy
| | - Melissa J. Polonenko
- Archie’s, Cochlear Implant Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Institute of Medical Sciences, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Blake C. Papsin
- Archie’s, Cochlear Implant Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Gaetano Paludetti
- Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Institute of Otorhinolaryngology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy
| | - Karen A. Gordon
- Archie’s, Cochlear Implant Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- * E-mail:
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