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Herff SA, Bonetti L, Cecchetti G, Vuust P, Kringelbach ML, Rohrmeier MA. Hierarchical syntax model of music predicts theta power during music listening. Neuropsychologia 2024; 199:108905. [PMID: 38740179 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108905] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Revised: 03/07/2024] [Accepted: 05/06/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024]
Abstract
Linguistic research showed that the depth of syntactic embedding is reflected in brain theta power. Here, we test whether this also extends to non-linguistic stimuli, specifically music. We used a hierarchical model of musical syntax to continuously quantify two types of expert-annotated harmonic dependencies throughout a piece of Western classical music: prolongation and preparation. Prolongations can roughly be understood as a musical analogue to linguistic coordination between constituents that share the same function (e.g., 'pizza' and 'pasta' in 'I ate pizza and pasta'). Preparation refers to the dependency between two harmonies whereby the first implies a resolution towards the second (e.g., dominant towards tonic; similar to how the adjective implies the presence of a noun in 'I like spicy … '). Source reconstructed MEG data of sixty-five participants listening to the musical piece was then analysed. We used Bayesian Mixed Effects models to predict theta envelope in the brain, using the number of open prolongation and preparation dependencies as predictors whilst controlling for audio envelope. We observed that prolongation and preparation both carry independent and distinguishable predictive value for theta band fluctuation in key linguistic areas such as the Angular, Superior Temporal, and Heschl's Gyri, or their right-lateralised homologues, with preparation showing additional predictive value for areas associated with the reward system and prediction. Musical expertise further mediated these effects in language-related brain areas. Results show that predictions of precisely formalised music-theoretical models are reflected in the brain activity of listeners which furthers our understanding of the perception and cognition of musical structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steffen A Herff
- Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia; Digital and Cognitive Musicology Lab, College of Humanities, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Leonardo Bonetti
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Gabriele Cecchetti
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia; Digital and Cognitive Musicology Lab, College of Humanities, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark
| | - Morten L Kringelbach
- Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark; Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Martin A Rohrmeier
- Digital and Cognitive Musicology Lab, College of Humanities, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Sun Y, Oxenham V, Lo CY, Walsh J, Martens WL, Cremer P, Thompson WF. Acquired amusia after a right middle cerebral artery infarction - a case study. Neurocase 2024; 30:18-28. [PMID: 38734872 DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2024.2350104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024]
Abstract
A 62-year-old musician-MM-developed amusia after a right middle-cerebral-artery infarction. Initially, MM showed melodic deficits while discriminating pitch-related differences in melodies, musical memory problems, and impaired sensitivity to tonal structures, but normal pitch discrimination and spectral resolution thresholds, and normal cognitive and language abilities. His rhythmic processing was intact when pitch variations were removed. After 3 months, MM showed a large improvement in his sensitivity to tonality, but persistent melodic deficits and a decline in perceiving the metric structure of rhythmic sequences. We also found visual cues aided melodic processing, which is novel and beneficial for future rehabilitation practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanan Sun
- Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Vincent Oxenham
- Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Neurology Department, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia
| | - Chi Yhun Lo
- Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Jessica Walsh
- Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Neurology Department, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia
| | - William L Martens
- Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Phillip Cremer
- Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Neurology Department, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia
| | - William Forde Thompson
- Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University, Queensland, Australia
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Benítez-Burraco A, Nikolsky A. The (Co)Evolution of Language and Music Under Human Self-Domestication. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2023; 34:229-275. [PMID: 37097428 PMCID: PMC10354115 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-023-09447-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/26/2023]
Abstract
Together with language, music is perhaps the most distinctive behavioral trait of the human species. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain why only humans perform music and how this ability might have evolved in our species. In this paper, we advance a new model of music evolution that builds on the self-domestication view of human evolution, according to which the human phenotype is, at least in part, the outcome of a process similar to domestication in other mammals, triggered by the reduction in reactive aggression responses to environmental changes. We specifically argue that self-domestication can account for some of the cognitive changes, and particularly for the behaviors conducive to the complexification of music through a cultural mechanism. We hypothesize four stages in the evolution of music under self-domestication forces: (1) collective protomusic; (2) private, timbre-oriented music; (3) small-group, pitch-oriented music; and (4) collective, tonally organized music. This line of development encompasses the worldwide diversity of music types and genres and parallels what has been hypothesized for languages. Overall, music diversity might have emerged in a gradual fashion under the effects of the enhanced cultural niche construction as shaped by the progressive decrease in reactive (i.e., impulsive, triggered by fear or anger) aggression and the increase in proactive (i.e., premeditated, goal-directed) aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Benítez-Burraco
- Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Literary Theory (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
- Departamento de Lengua Española, Facultad de Filología, Área de Lingüística General, Lingüística y Teoría de la Literatura, Universidad de Sevilla, C/ Palos de la Frontera s/n, Sevilla, 41007, España.
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Wang X, Li D, Li Y, Zhu L, Song D, Ma W. Semantic violation in sentence reading and incongruence in chord sequence comprehension: An ERP study. Heliyon 2023; 9:e13043. [PMID: 36747945 PMCID: PMC9898644 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13043] [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: 07/18/2022] [Revised: 01/08/2023] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
To address the controversy on cognitive resources sharedness between language and music in semantic processing, two experiments were conducted via the interference paradigm using the Event-Related Potential (ERP) technique. In Experiment 1, a five-word sentence and a five-chord sequence were simultaneously presented in a trial. The sentence (e.g., '/*,' The policeman found a mobile phone/wallet) ended with a semantically acceptable or unacceptable number-classifier-noun collocation (NCN), and the final chord of the chord sequence was congruent or incongruent with the preceding chords in tone. The stimuli in Experiment 1 were adapted in Experiment 2: The particle '' was removed, and a three-word-long, object-gap relative clause was inserted ahead of the noun of the NCN in each sentence; two chords were inserted ahead of the third chord in each chord sequence. Both similarities and differences were revealed between Experiments 1 and 2, concerning the influences of the manipulated variables on the amplitude of the ERP component N400. In conclusion, the dissolution of semantic violation in sentence reading was likely to happen in parallel with music processing in chord sequence comprehension by non-musician Chinese native speakers, but interaction was observable between language and music in semantic processing when the sentences ended with long-distance NCNs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xing Wang
- College of Chinese Language and Literature, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, 273165, PR China
| | - Degao Li
- College of Chinese Language and Literature, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, 273165, PR China,Corresponding author. College of Chinese Language and Literature, Qufu Normal University, No. 57, Jingxuan Road, Qufu, Shandong Province, 273165, PR China.
| | - Yi Li
- College of Music, Qufu Normal University (Rizhao Campus), Rizhao, 276826, PR China
| | - Li Zhu
- Division of Organization, Zhongshan Torch Polytechnic, Zhongshan, 528436, PR China
| | - Dangui Song
- School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, PR China
| | - Wenling Ma
- College of Chinese Language and Literature, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, 273165, PR China
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Szyfter K, Wigowska-Sowińska J. Congenital amusia-pathology of musical disorder. J Appl Genet 2021; 63:127-131. [PMID: 34545551 PMCID: PMC8755656 DOI: 10.1007/s13353-021-00662-z] [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: 05/25/2021] [Revised: 08/20/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Amusia also known as tone deafness affects roughly 1.5% population. Congenital amusia appears from birth and lasts over life span. Usually, it is not associated with other diseases. Its link to hearing impairment has been definitively excluded. Neurobiological studies point to asymmetrical processing of musical signals in auditory cortex of left and right brain hemispheres. The finding was supported by discovering microlesions in the right-side gray matter. Because of its connection with asymmetry, amusia has been classified to disconnection syndromes. Alternatively to the neurobiological explanation of amusia background, an attention was turned to the significance of genetic factors. The studies done on relatives and twins indicated familial aggregation of amusia. Molecular genetic investigations linked amusia with deletion of 22q11.2 chromosome region. Until now no specific genes responsible for development of amusia were found.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krzysztof Szyfter
- Institute of Human Genetics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Ul. Strzeszyńska 32, 60-479, Poznań, Poland.
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Asano R, Boeckx C, Seifert U. Hierarchical control as a shared neurocognitive mechanism for language and music. Cognition 2021; 216:104847. [PMID: 34311153 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2020] [Revised: 05/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Although comparative research has made substantial progress in clarifying the relationship between language and music as neurocognitive systems from both a theoretical and empirical perspective, there is still no consensus about which mechanisms, if any, are shared and how they bring about different neurocognitive systems. In this paper, we tackle these two questions by focusing on hierarchical control as a neurocognitive mechanism underlying syntax in language and music. We put forward the Coordinated Hierarchical Control (CHC) hypothesis: linguistic and musical syntax rely on hierarchical control, but engage this shared mechanism differently depending on the current control demand. While linguistic syntax preferably engages the abstract rule-based control circuit, musical syntax rather employs the coordination of the abstract rule-based and the more concrete motor-based control circuits. We provide evidence for our hypothesis by reviewing neuroimaging as well as neuropsychological studies on linguistic and musical syntax. The CHC hypothesis makes a set of novel testable predictions to guide future work on the relationship between language and music.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rie Asano
- Systematic Musicology, Institute of Musicology, University of Cologne, Germany.
| | - Cedric Boeckx
- Section of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute for Complex Systems (UBICS), Spain; Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (ICREA), Spain
| | - Uwe Seifert
- Systematic Musicology, Institute of Musicology, University of Cologne, Germany
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Theta oscillations support the interface between language and memory. Neuroimage 2020; 215:116782. [PMID: 32276054 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2019] [Revised: 03/12/2020] [Accepted: 03/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent evidence shows that hippocampal theta oscillations, usually linked to memory and navigation, are also observed during online language processing, suggesting a shared neurophysiological mechanism between language and memory. However, it remains to be established what specific roles hippocampal theta oscillations may play in language, and whether and how theta mediates the communication between the hippocampus and the perisylvian cortical areas, generally thought to support language processing. With whole-head magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings, the present study investigated these questions with two experiments. Using a violation paradigm, extensively used for studying neural underpinnings of different aspects of linguistic processing, we found increased theta power (4-8 Hz) in the hippocampal formation, when participants read a semantically incorrect vs. correct sentence ending. Such a pattern of results was replicated using different sentence stimuli in another cohort of participants. Importantly, no significant hippocampal theta power increase was found when participants read a semantically correct but syntactically incorrect sentence ending vs. a correct sentence ending. These findings may suggest that hippocampal theta oscillations are specifically linked to lexical-semantic related processing, and not general information processing in sentence reading. Furthermore, we found significantly transient theta phase coupling between the hippocampus and the left superior temporal gyrus, a hub area of the cortical network for language comprehension. This transient theta phase coupling may provide an important channel that links the memory and language systems for the generation of sentence meaning. Overall, these findings help specify the role of hippocampal theta in language, and provide a novel neurophysiological mechanism at the network level that may support the interface between memory and language.
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Shared neural resources of rhythm and syntax: An ALE meta-analysis. Neuropsychologia 2019; 137:107284. [PMID: 31783081 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2019] [Accepted: 11/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
A growing body of evidence has highlighted behavioral connections between musical rhythm and linguistic syntax, suggesting that these abilities may be mediated by common neural resources. Here, we performed a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies using activation likelihood estimate (ALE) to localize the shared neural structures engaged in a representative set of musical rhythm (rhythm, beat, and meter) and linguistic syntax (merge movement, and reanalysis) operations. Rhythm engaged a bilateral sensorimotor network throughout the brain consisting of the inferior frontal gyri, supplementary motor area, superior temporal gyri/temporoparietal junction, insula, intraparietal lobule, and putamen. By contrast, syntax mostly recruited the left sensorimotor network including the inferior frontal gyrus, posterior superior temporal gyrus, premotor cortex, and supplementary motor area. Intersections between rhythm and syntax maps yielded overlapping regions in the left inferior frontal gyrus, left supplementary motor area, and bilateral insula-neural substrates involved in temporal hierarchy processing and predictive coding. Together, this is the first neuroimaging meta-analysis providing detailed anatomical overlap of sensorimotor regions recruited for musical rhythm and linguistic syntax.
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Zhou L, Liu F, Jiang J, Jiang C. Impaired emotional processing of chords in congenital amusia: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence. Brain Cogn 2019; 135:103577. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2017] [Revised: 06/04/2019] [Accepted: 06/04/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Zhou L, Liu F, Jiang J, Jiang H, Jiang C. Abnormal neural responses to harmonic syntactic structures in congenital amusia. Psychophysiology 2019; 56:e13394. [PMID: 31111968 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2018] [Revised: 04/14/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
In music, harmonic syntactic structures are organized hierarchically through local and long-distance dependencies. This study investigated whether congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder of pitch perception, is associated with impaired processing of harmonic syntactic structures. For stimuli, we used harmonic sequences containing two phrases, where the first phrase ended with a half cadence and the second with an authentic cadence. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the ending chord of the authentic cadence to be either syntactically regular or irregular based on local dependencies. Sixteen amusics and 16 controls judged the expectedness of these chords while their EEG waveforms were recorded. In comparison to the regular endings, irregular endings elicited an ERAN, an N5, and a late positive component in controls but not in amusics, indicating that amusics were impaired in processing local syntactic dependencies. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the half cadence of the harmonic sequences to either adhere to or violate long-distance syntactic dependencies. In response to irregular harmonic sequences, an ERAN-like component and an N5 were elicited in controls but not in amusics, suggesting that amusics were impaired in processing long-distance syntactic dependencies. Furthermore, for controls, the neural processing of local and long-distance syntactic dependencies was correlated at the later integration stage but not at the early detection stage. These findings indicate that amusia is associated with impairment in the detection and integration of local and long-distance syntactic violations. The implications of these findings in terms of hierarchical music-syntactic processing are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linshu Zhou
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Fang Liu
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Jun Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Hanyuan Jiang
- Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China
| | - Cunmei Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
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Early Influence of Musical Abilities and Working Memory on Speech Imitation Abilities: Study with Pre-School Children. Brain Sci 2018; 8:brainsci8090169. [PMID: 30200479 PMCID: PMC6162612 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci8090169] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2018] [Revised: 08/27/2018] [Accepted: 08/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Musical aptitude and language talent are highly intertwined when it comes to phonetic language ability. Research on pre-school children’s musical abilities and foreign language abilities are rare but give further insights into the relationship between language and musical aptitude. We tested pre-school children’s abilities to imitate unknown languages, to remember strings of digits, to sing, to discriminate musical statements and their intrinsic (spontaneous) singing behavior (“singing-lovers versus singing nerds”). The findings revealed that having an ear for music is linked to phonetic language abilities. The results of this investigation show that a working memory capacity and phonetic aptitude are linked to high musical perception and production ability already at around the age of 5. This suggests that music and (foreign) language learning capacity may be linked from childhood on. Furthermore, the findings put emphasis on the possibility that early developed abilities may be responsible for individual differences in both linguistic and musical performances.
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