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Couvignou M, Peyre H, Ramus F, Kolinsky R. Do early musical impairments predict later reading difficulties? A longitudinal study of pre-readers with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Dev Sci 2024:e13519. [PMID: 38679927 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024]
Abstract
The present longitudinal study investigated the hypothesis that early musical skills (as measured by melodic and rhythmic perception and memory) predict later literacy development via a mediating effect of phonology. We examined 130 French-speaking children, 31 of whom with a familial risk for developmental dyslexia (DD). Their abilities in the three domains were assessed longitudinally with a comprehensive battery of behavioral tests in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Using a structural equation modeling approach, we examined potential longitudinal effects from music to literacy via phonology. We then investigated how familial risk for DD may influence these relationships by testing whether atypical music processing is a risk factor for DD. Results showed that children with a familial risk for DD consistently underperformed children without familial risk in music, phonology, and literacy. A small effect of musical ability on literacy via phonology was observed, but may have been induced by differences in stability across domains over time. Furthermore, early musical skills did not add significant predictive power to later literacy difficulties beyond phonological skills and family risk status. These findings are consistent with the idea that certain key auditory skills are shared between music and speech processing, and between DD and congenital amusia. However, they do not support the notion that music perception and memory skills can serve as a reliable early marker of DD, nor as a valuable target for reading remediation. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Music, phonology, and literacy skills of 130 children, 31 of whom with a familial risk for dyslexia, were examined longitudinally. Children with a familial risk for dyslexia consistently underperformed children without familial risk in musical, phonological, and literacy skills. Structural equation models showed a small effect of musical ability in kindergarten on literacy in second grade, via phonology in first grade. However, early musical skills did not add significant predictive power to later literacy difficulties beyond phonological skills and family risk status.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manon Couvignou
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Psychology, Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Hugo Peyre
- Département d'Études Cognitives, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, École Normale Supérieure, PSL University, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
- Autism Reference Centre of Languedoc-Roussillon CRA-LR, Excellence Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopmental disorders CeAND, Montpellier University Hospital, MUSE University, Montpellier, France
- CESP, INSERM U1178, Centre de recherche en Épidémiologie et Santé des Populations, Villejuif, France
| | - Franck Ramus
- Département d'Études Cognitives, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, École Normale Supérieure, PSL University, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Régine Kolinsky
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium
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2
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Tang L, Xu Y, Yang S, Meng X, Du B, Sun C, Liu L, Dong Q, Nan Y. Mandarin-Speaking Amusics' Online Recognition of Tone and Intonation. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2024; 67:1107-1116. [PMID: 38470842 DOI: 10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/14/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch processing. Its linguistic consequences have been examined separately for speech intonations and lexical tones. However, in a tonal language such as Chinese, the processing of intonations and lexical tones interacts with each other during online speech perception. Whether and how the musical pitch disorder might affect linguistic pitch processing during online speech perception remains unknown. METHOD We investigated this question with intonation (question vs. statement) and lexical tone (rising Tone 2 vs. falling Tone 4) identification tasks using the same set of sentences, comparing behavioral and event-related potential measurements between Mandarin-speaking amusics and matched controls. We specifically focused on the amusics without behavioral lexical tone deficits (the majority, i.e., pure amusics). RESULTS Results showed that, despite relative to normal performance when tested in word lexical tone test, pure amusics demonstrated inferior recognition than controls during sentence tone and intonation identification. Compared to controls, pure amusics had larger N400 amplitudes in question stimuli during tone task and smaller P600 amplitudes in intonation task. CONCLUSION These data indicate that musical pitch disorder affects both tone and intonation processing during sentence processing even for pure amusics, whose lexical tone processing was intact when tested with words.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lirong Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Yangxiaoxue Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Shiting Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Xiangyun Meng
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Boqi Du
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Chen Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Li Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Qi Dong
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Yun Nan
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
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3
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Loutrari A, Alqadi A, Jiang C, Liu F. Exploring the role of singing, semantics, and amusia screening in speech-in-noise perception in musicians and non-musicians. Cogn Process 2024; 25:147-161. [PMID: 37851154 PMCID: PMC10827916 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-023-01165-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023]
Abstract
Sentence repetition has been the focus of extensive psycholinguistic research. The notion that music training can bolster speech perception in adverse auditory conditions has been met with mixed results. In this work, we sought to gauge the effect of babble noise on immediate repetition of spoken and sung phrases of varying semantic content (expository, narrative, and anomalous), initially in 100 English-speaking monolinguals with and without music training. The two cohorts also completed some non-musical cognitive tests and the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). When disregarding MBEA results, musicians were found to significantly outperform non-musicians in terms of overall repetition accuracy. Sung targets were recalled significantly better than spoken ones across groups in the presence of babble noise. Sung expository targets were recalled better than spoken expository ones, and semantically anomalous content was recalled more poorly in noise. Rerunning the analysis after eliminating thirteen participants who were diagnosed with amusia showed no significant group differences. This suggests that the notion of enhanced speech perception-in noise or otherwise-in musicians needs to be evaluated with caution. Musicianship aside, this study showed for the first time that sung targets presented in babble noise seem to be recalled better than spoken ones. We discuss the present design and the methodological approach of screening for amusia as factors which may partially account for some of the mixed results in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ariadne Loutrari
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, WC1N 1PF, UK
| | - Aseel Alqadi
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK
| | - Cunmei Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Fang Liu
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK.
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4
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Bowling DL. Biological principles for music and mental health. Transl Psychiatry 2023; 13:374. [PMID: 38049408 PMCID: PMC10695969 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-023-02671-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Revised: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/17/2023] [Indexed: 12/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Efforts to integrate music into healthcare systems and wellness practices are accelerating but the biological foundations supporting these initiatives remain underappreciated. As a result, music-based interventions are often sidelined in medicine. Here, I bring together advances in music research from neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry to bridge music's specific foundations in human biology with its specific therapeutic applications. The framework I propose organizes the neurophysiological effects of music around four core elements of human musicality: tonality, rhythm, reward, and sociality. For each, I review key concepts, biological bases, and evidence of clinical benefits. Within this framework, I outline a strategy to increase music's impact on health based on standardizing treatments and their alignment with individual differences in responsivity to these musical elements. I propose that an integrated biological understanding of human musicality-describing each element's functional origins, development, phylogeny, and neural bases-is critical to advancing rational applications of music in mental health and wellness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel L Bowling
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford, CA, USA.
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5
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Yeom D, Stead KS, Tan YT, McPherson GE, Wilson SJ. How accurate are self-evaluations of singing ability? Ann N Y Acad Sci 2023; 1530:87-95. [PMID: 37924320 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.15081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2023]
Abstract
Research has shown that people inaccurately assess their own abilities on self-report measures, including academic, athletic, and music ability. Evidence suggests this is also true for singing, with individuals either overestimating or underestimating their level of singing competency. In this paper, we present the Melbourne Singing Tool Questionnaire (MST-Q), a brief 16-item measure exploring people's self-perceptions of singing ability and engagement with singing. Using a large sample of Australian twins (n = 996), we identified three latent factors underlying MST-Q items and examined whether these factors were related to an objective phenotypic measure of singing ability. The three factors were identified as Personal Engagement, Social Engagement, and Self-Evaluation. All factors were positively associated with objective singing performance, with the Self-Evaluation factor yielding the strongest correlation (r = 0.66). Both the Self-Evaluation factor and a single self-report item of singing ability shared the same predictive strength. Contrary to expectations, our findings suggest that self-evaluation strongly predicts singing ability, and this self-evaluation is of higher predictive value than self-reported engagement with music and singing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Yeom
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kendall S Stead
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Yi Ting Tan
- Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Gary E McPherson
- Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Sarah J Wilson
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medicine, Epilepsy Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
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6
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Couvignou M, Tillmann B, Caclin A, Kolinsky R. Do developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia share underlying impairments? Child Neuropsychol 2023; 29:1294-1340. [PMID: 36606656 DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2022.2162031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia have common characteristics. Yet, their possible association in some individuals has been addressed only scarcely. Recently, two converging studies reported a sizable comorbidity rate between these two neurodevelopmental disorders (Couvignou et al., Cognitive Neuropsychology 2019; Couvignou & Kolinsky, Neuropsychologia 2021). However, the reason for their association remains unclear. Here, we investigate the hypothesis of shared underlying impairments between dyslexia and amusia. Fifteen dyslexic children with amusia (DYS+A), 15 dyslexic children without amusia (DYS-A), and two groups of 25 typically developing children matched on either chronological age (CA) or reading level (RL) were assessed with a behavioral battery aiming to investigate phonological and pitch processing capacities at auditory memory, perceptual awareness, and attentional levels. Overall, our results suggest that poor auditory serial-order memory increases susceptibility to comorbidity between dyslexia and amusia and may play a role in the development of the comorbid phenotype. In contrast, the impairments observed in the DYS+A children for auditory item memory, perceptual awareness, and attention might be a consequence of their reduced reading experience combined with weaker musical skills. Comparing DYS+A and DYS-A children suggests that the latter are more resourceful and/or have more effective compensatory strategies, or that their phenotype results from a different developmental trajectory. We will discuss the relevance of these findings for delving into the etiology of these two developmental disorders and address their implications for future research and practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manon Couvignou
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Régine Kolinsky
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium
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7
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Tillmann B, Graves JE, Talamini F, Lévêque Y, Fornoni L, Hoarau C, Pralus A, Ginzburg J, Albouy P, Caclin A. Auditory cortex and beyond: Deficits in congenital amusia. Hear Res 2023; 437:108855. [PMID: 37572645 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108855] [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: 02/04/2023] [Revised: 06/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/14/2023]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of music perception and production, with the observed deficits contrasting with the sophisticated music processing reported for the general population. Musical deficits within amusia have been hypothesized to arise from altered pitch processing, with impairments in pitch discrimination and, notably, short-term memory. We here review research investigating its behavioral and neural correlates, in particular the impairments at encoding, retention, and recollection of pitch information, as well as how these impairments extend to the processing of pitch cues in speech and emotion. The impairments have been related to altered brain responses in a distributed fronto-temporal network, which can be observed also at rest. Neuroimaging studies revealed changes in connectivity patterns within this network and beyond, shedding light on the brain dynamics underlying auditory cognition. Interestingly, some studies revealed spared implicit pitch processing in congenital amusia, showing the power of implicit cognition in the music domain. Building on these findings, together with audiovisual integration and other beneficial mechanisms, we outline perspectives for training and rehabilitation and the future directions of this research domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Tillmann
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France; Laboratory for Research on Learning and Development, Université de Bourgogne, LEAD - CNRS UMR5022, Dijon, France; LEAD-CNRS UMR5022; Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté; Pôle AAFE; 11 Esplanade Erasme; 21000 Dijon, France.
| | - Jackson E Graves
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, Département d'études cognitives, École normale supérieure, PSL University, Paris 75005, France
| | | | - Yohana Lévêque
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Lesly Fornoni
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Caliani Hoarau
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Agathe Pralus
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Jérémie Ginzburg
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Philippe Albouy
- CERVO Brain Research Center, School of Psychology, Laval University, Québec, G1J 2G3; International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), CRBLM, Montreal QC, H2V 2J2, Canada
| | - Anne Caclin
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France.
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8
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Bowling DL. Vocal similarity theory and the biology of musical tonality. Phys Life Rev 2023; 46:46-51. [PMID: 37244152 PMCID: PMC10528872 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2023.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel L Bowling
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford School of Medicine, United States of America; Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, United States of America.
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9
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Peng ZE, Burg EA, Thakkar T, Godar SP, Anderson SR, Litovsky RY. Web-based psychoacoustics of binaural hearing: Two validation experiments. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 154:751-762. [PMID: 37556566 PMCID: PMC10415019 DOI: 10.1121/10.0020567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2022] [Revised: 07/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023]
Abstract
Web-based testing is an appealing option for expanding psychoacoustics research outside laboratory environments due to its simple logistics. For example, research participants partake in listening tasks using their own computer and audio hardware and can participate in a comfortable environment of their choice at their own pace. However, it is unknown how deviations from conventional in-lab testing affect data quality, particularly in binaural hearing tasks that traditionally require highly precise audio presentation. Here, we used an online platform to replicate two published in-lab experiments: lateralization to interaural time and level differences (ITD and ILD, experiment I) and dichotic and contralateral unmasking of speech (experiment II) in normal-hearing (NH) young adults. Lateralization data collected online were strikingly similar to in-lab results. Likewise, the amount of unmasking measured online and in-lab differed by less than 1 dB, although online participants demonstrated higher speech reception thresholds overall than those tested in-lab by up to ∼7 dB. Results from online participants who completed a hearing screening versus those who self-reported NH did not differ significantly. We conclude that web-based psychoacoustics testing is a viable option for assessing binaural hearing abilities among young NH adults and discuss important considerations for online study design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Z Ellen Peng
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, USA
| | - Emily A Burg
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, USA
| | - Tanvi Thakkar
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, USA
| | - Shelly P Godar
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, USA
| | - Sean R Anderson
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, USA
| | - Ruth Y Litovsky
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, USA
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10
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Zhu J, Chen X, Chen F, Zhang C, Shao J, Wiener S. Tone Deafness in Music Does Not Preclude Distributional Learning of Nonnative Tonal Languages in Individuals With Congenital Amusia. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023:1-17. [PMID: 37267445 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00572] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Previous studies have shown that individuals with congenital amusia exhibit deficient pitch processing across music and language domains. This study investigated whether adult Chinese-speaking listeners with amusia were still able to learn Thai lexical tones based on stimulus frequency of statistical distribution via distributional learning, despite their degraded lexical tone perception. METHOD Following a pretest-training-posttest design, 21 amusics and 23 typical, musically intact listeners were assigned into bimodal and unimodal distribution conditions. Listeners were asked to discriminate minimal pairs of Thai mid-level tone and falling tone superimposed on variable base syllables and uttered by different speakers. The perceptual accuracy for each test session and improvement from pretest to posttest were collected and analyzed between the two groups using generalized mixed-effects models. RESULTS When discriminating Thai lexical tones, amusics were less accurate than typical listeners. Nonetheless, similarly to control listeners, perceptual gains from pretest to posttest were observed in bimodally rather than unimodally trained amusics, as evidenced by both trained and nontrained test words. CONCLUSIONS Amusics are able to learn lexical tones in a second or foreign context of speech. This extends previous research by showing that amusics' distributional learning of linguistic pitch remains largely preserved despite their degraded pitch processing. It is thus likely that manifestations of amusia in speech could not result from their abnormal statistical learning mechanism. This study meanwhile provides a heuristic approach for future studies to apply this paradigm into amusics' treatment to mitigate their pitch-processing disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaqiang Zhu
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Xiaoxiang Chen
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Fei Chen
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Caicai Zhang
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Jing Shao
- Department of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Seth Wiener
- Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
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11
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Jiang J, Liu F, Zhou L, Chen L, Jiang C. Explicit processing of melodic structure in congenital amusia can be improved by redescription-associate learning. Neuropsychologia 2023; 182:108521. [PMID: 36870471 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Revised: 02/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical processing. Previous research demonstrates that although explicit musical processing is impaired in congenital amusia, implicit musical processing can be intact. However, little is known about whether implicit knowledge could improve explicit musical processing in individuals with congenital amusia. To this end, we developed a training method utilizing redescription-associate learning, aiming at transferring implicit representations of perceptual states into explicit forms through verbal description and then establishing the associations between the perceptual states reported and responses via feedback, to investigate whether the explicit processing of melodic structure could be improved in individuals with congenital amusia. Sixteen amusics and 11 controls rated the degree of expectedness of melodies during EEG recording before and after training. In the interim, half of the amusics received nine training sessions on melodic structure, while the other half received no training. Results, based on effect size estimation, showed that at pretest, amusics but not controls failed to explicitly distinguish the regular from the irregular melodies and to exhibit an ERAN in response to the irregular endings. At posttest, trained but not untrained amusics performed as well as controls at both the behavioral and neural levels. At the 3-month follow-up, the training effects still maintained. These findings present novel electrophysiological evidence of neural plasticity in the amusic brain, suggesting that redescription-associate learning may be an effective method to remediate impaired explicit processes for individuals with other neurodevelopmental disorders who have intact implicit knowledge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Fang Liu
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK
| | - Linshu Zhou
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Liaoliao Chen
- Foreign Languages College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Cunmei Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China.
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12
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Nayak S, Coleman PL, Ladányi E, Nitin R, Gustavson DE, Fisher SE, Magne CL, Gordon RL. The Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) Framework for Understanding Musicality-Language Links Across the Lifespan. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2022; 3:615-664. [PMID: 36742012 PMCID: PMC9893227 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
Using individual differences approaches, a growing body of literature finds positive associations between musicality and language-related abilities, complementing prior findings of links between musical training and language skills. Despite these associations, musicality has been often overlooked in mainstream models of individual differences in language acquisition and development. To better understand the biological basis of these individual differences, we propose the Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) framework. This novel integrative framework posits that musical and language-related abilities likely share some common genetic architecture (i.e., genetic pleiotropy) in addition to some degree of overlapping neural endophenotypes, and genetic influences on musically and linguistically enriched environments. Drawing upon recent advances in genomic methodologies for unraveling pleiotropy, we outline testable predictions for future research on language development and how its underlying neurobiological substrates may be supported by genetic pleiotropy with musicality. In support of the MAPLE framework, we review and discuss findings from over seventy behavioral and neural studies, highlighting that musicality is robustly associated with individual differences in a range of speech-language skills required for communication and development. These include speech perception-in-noise, prosodic perception, morphosyntactic skills, phonological skills, reading skills, and aspects of second/foreign language learning. Overall, the current work provides a clear agenda and framework for studying musicality-language links using individual differences approaches, with an emphasis on leveraging advances in the genomics of complex musicality and language traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Srishti Nayak
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Psychology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, TN, USA
| | - Peyton L. Coleman
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Enikő Ladányi
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Linguistics, Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Rachana Nitin
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Daniel E. Gustavson
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Simon E. Fisher
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Cyrille L. Magne
- Department of Psychology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA
- PhD Program in Literacy Studies, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA
| | - Reyna L. Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, TN, USA
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13
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Weiss MW, Peretz I. Improvisation is a novel tool to study musicality. Sci Rep 2022; 12:12595. [PMID: 35869086 PMCID: PMC9307610 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15312-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2021] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans spontaneously invent songs from an early age. Here, we exploit this natural inclination to probe implicit musical knowledge in 33 untrained and poor singers (amusia). Each sang 28 long improvisations as a response to a verbal prompt or a continuation of a melodic stem. To assess the extent to which each improvisation reflects tonality, which has been proposed to be a core organizational principle of musicality and which is present within most music traditions, we developed a new algorithm that compares a sung excerpt to a probability density function representing the tonal hierarchy of Western music. The results show signatures of tonality in both nonmusicians and individuals with congenital amusia, who have notorious difficulty performing musical tasks that require explicit responses and memory. The findings are a proof of concept that improvisation can serve as a novel, even enjoyable method for systematically measuring hidden aspects of musicality across the spectrum of musical ability.
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14
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Peretz I, Ross J, Bourassa CV, Perreault LPL, Dion PA, Weiss MW, Felezeu M, Rouleau GA, Dubé MP. Do variants in the coding regions of FOXP2, a gene implicated in speech disorder, confer a risk for congenital amusia? Ann N Y Acad Sci 2022; 1517:279-285. [PMID: 35980667 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14883] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a lifelong disorder that compromises the normal development of musical abilities in 1.5-4% of the general population. There is a substantial genetic contribution to congenital amusia, and it bears similarities to neurodevelopmental disorders of language. Here, we examine the extent to which variants in the forkhead box P2 gene (FOXP2)-the first gene to be identified as causal in developmental speech deficits-are associated with the amusic trait. Using a cohort of 49 individuals with amusia, of which 27 were unrelated, the role of FOXP2 variants in amusia was evaluated. Fourteen variants were examined in the cohort. None segregated with the amusic trait among participants for whom family information was available; nor were they predicted to be deleterious to protein function. Thus, variants in FOXP2 are not likely to cause amusia. Implications for ongoing debates about the distinction between musicality and language are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabelle Peretz
- Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Jay Ross
- Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Cynthia V Bourassa
- Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | | | - Patrick A Dion
- Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Michael W Weiss
- Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Mihaela Felezeu
- Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Guy A Rouleau
- Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.,Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Marie-Pierre Dubé
- Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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15
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Krause AE, Forbes M, Lowe-Brown X. Does Reality Television-Style Singing Influence Singing Self-Concept? J Voice 2022:S0892-1997(22)00187-4. [PMID: 35879211 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.06.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2022] [Revised: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
HYPOTHESIS Due to upward social comparison, we hypothesized that exposure to reality television singing (a technically demanding style of contemporary commercial music singing) would negatively influence singing self-concept compared to hearing amateur singers or plain, unembellished singing by professionals. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS A between-subjects, online experiment was used. A sample of 212 individuals (Mage = 33.14; 69.30% female) participated in the study. After completing a background section, participants were randomly allocated into one of the experimental conditions (hearing one of four versions of a well-known song: a control version with piano and no singing, amateur singing, professional plain singing, and professional singing in the style of reality television singing). Participants were then asked to judge the performance they heard and to respond to items concerning their singing self-concept (including singing ability). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS A series of ANCOVAs was used to examine the impact of the experimental condition on the participants' performance judgments and singing self-concept. The amateur singing was judged as the lowest quality. While there was no significant difference by experimental condition regarding possessing good singing ability, the experimental condition did affect people's singing aspirations and perceived ability to sing along with the performers. The pattern of results suggests that exposure to reality television-style singing may have negative impacts on people's singing self-concept via upward social comparison. Self-concept has been identified as an important predictor of musical engagement and participation and plays a role in motivating action. These results encourage music educators, singing voice pedagogues, and community musicians seeking to promote musical and singing participation to be aware of cultural influences on an individual's singing self-concept.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda E Krause
- Department of Psychology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
| | - Melissa Forbes
- Centre for Heritage and Culture, School of Creative Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
| | - Xanthe Lowe-Brown
- Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne, Southbank, Victoria, Australia
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16
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Sihvonen AJ, Pitkäniemi A, Särkämö T, Soinila S. Isn't There Room for Music in Chronic Pain Management? THE JOURNAL OF PAIN 2022; 23:1143-1150. [PMID: 35124251 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2022.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Revised: 01/01/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Chronic pain with its comorbidities, such as depression, insomnia, and social deprivation, is a major cause of disability and health-economic burden. Insufficient response to pain medication and potentially serious adverse effects have led the majority of chronic pain patients to seek relief from non-pharmacological remedies. Along with this trend, pain research has paid increasing interest in critical evaluation of various complementary treatments. Music-based treatments have emerged as an efficacious and safe means to enhance the management of acute and chronic pain. We review the current position of music-based interventions in the treatment of chronic pain and present explanations for the analgesic effects of music through modulation of the primary nociception and discuss the contribution of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system to the affective component of pain perception. We propose ways to translate the novel theoretical understanding into clinical practice in different health care settings, primary health care in particular, and discuss the preconditions of successful implementation. We argue that music interventions provide low-cost, easily applicable complementary pain treatments not requiring heavy utilization of health care resources. Finally, we provide research and quality improvement frameworks and make suggestions to cover the gaps of existing evidence. PERSPECTIVE: This article addresses the current evidence for analgesic effects of music interventions, discusses its neurobiological basis and evaluates potential use of music in treating chronic pain patients in different health care settings. We also propose directions for future research to cover shortages in the currently published data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksi J Sihvonen
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland; Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Australia.
| | - Anni Pitkäniemi
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Teppo Särkämö
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland
| | - Seppo Soinila
- Neurocenter, Turku University Hospital and Division of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Turku, Finland
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17
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Peng ZE, Waz S, Buss E, Shen Y, Richards V, Bharadwaj H, Stecker GC, Beim JA, Bosen AK, Braza MD, Diedesch AC, Dorey CM, Dykstra AR, Gallun FJ, Goldsworthy RL, Gray L, Hoover EC, Ihlefeld A, Koelewijn T, Kopun JG, Mesik J, Shub DE, Venezia JH. FORUM: Remote testing for psychological and physiological acoustics. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 151:3116. [PMID: 35649891 PMCID: PMC9305596 DOI: 10.1121/10.0010422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2021] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Acoustics research involving human participants typically takes place in specialized laboratory settings. Listening studies, for example, may present controlled sounds using calibrated transducers in sound-attenuating or anechoic chambers. In contrast, remote testing takes place outside of the laboratory in everyday settings (e.g., participants' homes). Remote testing could provide greater access to participants, larger sample sizes, and opportunities to characterize performance in typical listening environments at the cost of reduced control of environmental conditions, less precise calibration, and inconsistency in attentional state and/or response behaviors from relatively smaller sample sizes and unintuitive experimental tasks. The Acoustical Society of America Technical Committee on Psychological and Physiological Acoustics launched the Task Force on Remote Testing (https://tcppasa.org/remotetesting/) in May 2020 with goals of surveying approaches and platforms available to support remote testing and identifying challenges and considerations for prospective investigators. The results of this task force survey were made available online in the form of a set of Wiki pages and summarized in this report. This report outlines the state-of-the-art of remote testing in auditory-related research as of August 2021, which is based on the Wiki and a literature search of papers published in this area since 2020, and provides three case studies to demonstrate feasibility during practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Z Ellen Peng
- Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska 68131, USA
| | - Sebastian Waz
- University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
| | - Emily Buss
- The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599, USA
| | - Yi Shen
- University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
| | | | | | | | - Jordan A Beim
- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
| | - Adam K Bosen
- Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska 68131, USA
| | - Meredith D Braza
- The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599, USA
| | - Anna C Diedesch
- Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225, USA
| | | | | | | | | | - Lincoln Gray
- James Madison University, Harrisburg, Virginia 22807, USA
| | - Eric C Hoover
- University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Antje Ihlefeld
- Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
| | | | - Judy G Kopun
- Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska 68131, USA
| | - Juraj Mesik
- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
| | - Daniel E Shub
- Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USA
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18
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Zhang G, Shao J, Zhang C, Wang L. The Perception of Lexical Tone and Intonation in Whispered Speech by Mandarin-Speaking Congenital Amusics. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:1331-1348. [PMID: 35377182 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE A fundamental feature of human speech is variation, including the manner of phonation, as exemplified in the case of whispered speech. In this study, we employed whispered speech to examine an unresolved issue about congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical pitch processing, which also affects speech pitch processing such as lexical tone and intonation perception. The controversy concerns whether amusia is a pitch-processing disorder or can affect speech processing beyond pitch. METHOD We examined lexical tone and intonation recognition in 19 Mandarin-speaking amusics and 19 matched controls in phonated and whispered speech, where fundamental frequency (f o) information is either present or absent. RESULTS The results revealed that the performance of congenital amusics was inferior to that of controls in lexical tone identification in both phonated and whispered speech. These impairments were also detected in identifying intonation (statements/questions) in phonated and whispered modes. Across the experiments, regression models revealed that f o and non-f o (duration, intensity, and formant frequency) acoustic cues predicted tone and intonation recognition in phonated speech, whereas non-f o cues predicted tone and intonation recognition in whispered speech. There were significant differences between amusics and controls in the use of both f o and non-f o cues. CONCLUSION The results provided the first evidence that the impairments of amusics in lexical tone and intonation identification prevail into whispered speech and support the hypothesis that the deficits of amusia extend beyond pitch processing. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19302275.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaoyuan Zhang
- Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jing Shao
- Department of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Caicai Zhang
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Lan Wang
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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19
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Zendel BR, Demirkaplan Ö, Mignault-Goulet G, Peretz I. The relationship between acoustic and musical pitch processing in adolescents. Int J Dev Neurosci 2022; 82:314-330. [PMID: 35338667 DOI: 10.1002/jdn.10181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2021] [Revised: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Amusia is defined as a difficulty processing the tonal pitch structure of music such that an individual cannot tell the difference between notes that are in-key and out-of-key. A fine-grained pitch discrimination deficit is often observed in people with amusia. It is possible that an intervention, early in development, could mitigate amusia; however, one challenge identifying amusia early in development is that identifying in- and out-of-key notes is a meta-cognitive task. Given the common co-occurrence of difficulties with pitch discrimination, it would be easier to identify amusia in developing children by using a pitch change detection task. The goal of this study was to explore the behavioural and neurophysiological profiles of adolescents with poor pitch processing (Poor PP) abilities compared to those with normal pitch processing (Normal PP) abilities. Neurophysiologically, the Poor PPs exhibited a similar event-related potential (ERP) profile to adult amusics during both acoustic and musical pitch discrimination tasks. That is, early ERPs (ERAN, MMN) were similar in Poor PPs compared to Normal PPs, while late positivities (P300, P600) were absent in Poor PPs, but present in Normal PPs. At the same time behavioural data revealed a double dissociation between the abilities to detect a pitch deviant in acoustic and musical context, suggesting that about a third of the children would be missed by selecting a fine-grained acoustic pitch discrimination task to identify the presence of amusia in early childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Rich Zendel
- Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland.,Aging Research Centre - Newfoundland and Labrador, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University.,The International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal
| | | | - Geneviève Mignault-Goulet
- The International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal
| | - Isabelle Peretz
- The International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal
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20
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Nguyen DD, Chacon AM, Novakovic D, Hodges NJ, Carding PN, Madill C. Pitch Discrimination Testing in Patients with a Voice Disorder. J Clin Med 2022; 11:jcm11030584. [PMID: 35160036 PMCID: PMC8836960 DOI: 10.3390/jcm11030584] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2021] [Revised: 01/17/2022] [Accepted: 01/18/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Auditory perception plays an important role in voice control. Pitch discrimination (PD) is a key index of auditory perception and is influenced by a variety of factors. Little is known about the potential effects of voice disorders on PD and whether PD testing can differentiate people with and without a voice disorder. We thus evaluated PD in a voice-disordered group (n = 71) and a non-voice-disordered control group (n = 80). The voice disorders included muscle tension dysphonia and neurological voice disorders and all participants underwent PD testing as part of a comprehensive voice assessment. Percentage of accurate responses and PD threshold were compared across groups. The PD percentage accuracy was significantly lower in the voice-disordered group than the control group, irrespective of musical background. Participants with voice disorders also required a larger PD threshold to correctly discriminate pitch differences. The mean PD threshold significantly discriminated the voice-disordered groups from the control group. These results have implications for the voice control and pathogenesis of voice disorders. They support the inclusion of PD testing during comprehensive voice assessment and throughout the treatment process for patients with voice disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Duy Duong Nguyen
- Voice Research Laboratory, Discipline of Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; (A.M.C.); (D.N.); (C.M.)
- National Hospital of Otorhinolaryngology, Hanoi 11519, Vietnam
- Correspondence:
| | - Antonia M. Chacon
- Voice Research Laboratory, Discipline of Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; (A.M.C.); (D.N.); (C.M.)
| | - Daniel Novakovic
- Voice Research Laboratory, Discipline of Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; (A.M.C.); (D.N.); (C.M.)
- The Canterbury Hospital, Campsie, NSW 2194, Australia
| | - Nicola J. Hodges
- School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada;
| | - Paul N. Carding
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Research, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK;
| | - Catherine Madill
- Voice Research Laboratory, Discipline of Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; (A.M.C.); (D.N.); (C.M.)
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21
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Zhu J, Chen X, Chen F, Wiener S. Individuals With Congenital Amusia Show Degraded Speech Perception but Preserved Statistical Learning for Tone Languages. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:53-69. [PMID: 34860571 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Individuals with congenital amusia exhibit degraded speech perception. This study examined whether adult Chinese Mandarin listeners with amusia were still able to extract the statistical regularities of Mandarin speech sounds, despite their degraded speech perception. METHOD Using the gating paradigm with monosyllabic syllable-tone words, we tested 19 Mandarin-speaking amusics and 19 musically intact controls. Listeners heard increasingly longer fragments of the acoustic signal across eight duration-blocked gates. The stimuli varied in syllable token frequency and syllable-tone co-occurrence probability. The correct syllable-tone word, correct syllable-only, correct tone-only, and correct syllable-incorrect tone responses were compared respectively between the two groups using mixed-effects models. RESULTS Amusics were less accurate than controls in terms of the correct word, correct syllable-only, and correct tone-only responses. Amusics, however, showed consistent patterns of top-down processing, as indicated by more accurate responses to high-frequency syllables, high-probability tones, and tone errors all in manners similar to those of the control listeners. CONCLUSIONS Amusics are able to learn syllable and tone statistical regularities from the language input. This extends previous work by showing that amusics can track phonological segment and pitch cues despite their degraded speech perception. The observed speech deficits in amusics are therefore not due to an abnormal statistical learning mechanism. These results support rehabilitation programs aimed at improving amusics' sensitivity to pitch.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaqiang Zhu
- College of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Xiaoxiang Chen
- College of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Fei Chen
- College of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Seth Wiener
- Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
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22
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Sihvonen AJ, Särkämö T. Music processing and amusia. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2022; 187:55-67. [PMID: 35964992 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-823493-8.00014-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Music is a universal and important human trait, which is orchestrated by complex brain network centered in the temporal lobe but connecting broadly to multiple cortical and subcortical regions. In the human brain, music engages a widespread bilateral network of regions that govern auditory perception, syntactic and semantic processing, attention and memory, emotion and reward, and motor skills. The ability to perceive or produce music can be severely impaired either due to abnormal brain development or brain damage, leading to a condition called amusia. Modern neuroimaging studies of amusia have provided valuable knowledge about the structure and function of specific brain regions and white matter pathways that are crucial for music perception, highlighting the role of the right frontotemporal network in this process. In this chapter, we provide an overview on the neural basis of music processing in a healthy brain and review evidence obtained from the studies of congenital and acquired amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksi J Sihvonen
- School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Queensland Aphasia Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Herston, QLD, Australia; Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Teppo Särkämö
- Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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23
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Nadon É, Tillmann B, Saj A, Gosselin N. The Emotional Effect of Background Music on Selective Attention of Adults. Front Psychol 2021; 12:729037. [PMID: 34671300 PMCID: PMC8521063 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Daily activities can often be performed while listening to music, which could influence the ability to select relevant stimuli while ignoring distractors. Previous studies have established that the level of arousal of music (e.g., relaxing/stimulating) has the ability to modulate mood and affect the performance of cognitive tasks. The aim of this research was to explore the effect of relaxing and stimulating background music on selective attention. To this aim, 46 healthy adults performed a Stroop-type task in five different sound environments: relaxing music, stimulating music, relaxing music-matched noise, stimulating music-matched noise, and silence. Results showed that response times for incongruent and congruent trials as well as the Stroop interference effect were similar across conditions. Interestingly, results revealed a decreased error rate for congruent trials in the relaxing music condition as compared to the relaxing music-matched noise condition, and a similar tendency between relaxing music and stimulating music-matched noise. Taken together, the absence of difference between background music and silence conditions suggest that they have similar effects on adult’s selective attention capacities, while noise seems to have a detrimental impact, particularly when the task is easier cognitively. In conclusion, the type of sound stimulation in the environment seems to be a factor that can affect cognitive tasks performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Éva Nadon
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Music, Emotions, and Cognition Research Laboratory (MUSEC), Center for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Metropolitain Montreal (CRIR), Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Arnaud Saj
- Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Metropolitain Montreal (CRIR), Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Nathalie Gosselin
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Music, Emotions, and Cognition Research Laboratory (MUSEC), Center for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
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24
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Lense MD, Ladányi E, Rabinowitch TC, Trainor L, Gordon R. Rhythm and timing as vulnerabilities in neurodevelopmental disorders. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200327. [PMID: 34420385 PMCID: PMC8380970 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Millions of children are impacted by neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), which unfold early in life, have varying genetic etiologies and can involve a variety of specific or generalized impairments in social, cognitive and motor functioning requiring potentially lifelong specialized supports. While specific disorders vary in their domain of primary deficit (e.g. autism spectrum disorder (social), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (attention), developmental coordination disorder (motor) and developmental language disorder (language)), comorbidities between NDDs are common. Intriguingly, many NDDs are associated with difficulties in skills related to rhythm, timing and synchrony though specific profiles of rhythm/timing impairments vary across disorders. Impairments in rhythm/timing may instantiate vulnerabilities for a variety of NDDs and may contribute to both the primary symptoms of each disorder as well as the high levels of comorbidities across disorders. Drawing upon genetic, neural, behavioural and interpersonal constructs across disorders, we consider how disrupted rhythm and timing skills early in life may contribute to atypical developmental cascades that involve overlapping symptoms within the context of a disorder's primary deficits. Consideration of the developmental context, as well as common and unique aspects of the phenotypes of different NDDs, will inform experimental designs to test this hypothesis including via potential mechanistic intervention approaches. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam D. Lense
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Eniko Ladányi
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | | | - Laurel Trainor
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Reyna Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
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25
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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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26
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Anderson KS, Gosselin N, Sadikot AF, Laguë-Beauvais M, Kang ESH, Fogarty AE, Marcoux J, Dagher J, de Guise E. Pitch and Rhythm Perception and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Acute Traumatic Brain Injury. Brain Sci 2021; 11:1173. [PMID: 34573194 PMCID: PMC8469559 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11091173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2021] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Music perception deficits are common following acquired brain injury due to stroke, epilepsy surgeries, and aneurysmal clipping. Few studies have examined these deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI), resulting in an under-diagnosis in this population. We aimed to (1) compare TBI patients to controls on pitch and rhythm perception during the acute phase; (2) determine whether pitch and rhythm perception disorders co-occur; (3) examine lateralization of injury in the context of pitch and rhythm perception; and (4) determine the relationship between verbal short-term memory (STM) and pitch and rhythm perception. Music perception was examined using the Scale and Rhythm tests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, in association with CT scans to identify lesion laterality. Verbal short-term memory was examined using Digit Span Forward. TBI patients had greater impairment than controls, with 43% demonstrating deficits in pitch perception, and 40% in rhythm perception. Deficits were greater with right hemisphere damage than left. Pitch and rhythm deficits co-occurred 31% of the time, suggesting partly dissociable networks. There was a dissociation between performance on verbal STM and pitch and rhythm perception 39 to 42% of the time (respectively), with most individuals (92%) demonstrating intact verbal STM, with impaired pitch or rhythm perception. The clinical implications of music perception deficits following TBI are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten S Anderson
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H2V 2S9, Canada
- Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation du Montréal Métropolitain (CRIR), Montreal, QC H3S 1M9, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), and Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC H2V2S9, Canada
| | - Nathalie Gosselin
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H2V 2S9, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), and Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC H2V2S9, Canada
| | - Abbas F Sadikot
- Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
| | - Maude Laguë-Beauvais
- Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
- Traumatic Brain Injury Program, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Esther S H Kang
- Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 2M1, Canada
| | - Alexandra E Fogarty
- Department of Neurology, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Judith Marcoux
- Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
- Traumatic Brain Injury Program, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Jehane Dagher
- Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation du Montréal Métropolitain (CRIR), Montreal, QC H3S 1M9, Canada
- Traumatic Brain Injury Program, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Elaine de Guise
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H2V 2S9, Canada
- Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation du Montréal Métropolitain (CRIR), Montreal, QC H3S 1M9, Canada
- Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
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27
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Zhang C, Ho OY, Shao J, Ou J, Law SP. Dissociation of tone merger and congenital amusia in Hong Kong Cantonese. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0253982. [PMID: 34197546 PMCID: PMC8248700 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2020] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
While the issue of individual variation has been widely studied in second language learning or processing, it is less well understood how perceptual and musical aptitude differences can explain individual variation in native speech processing. In the current study, we make use of tone merger in Hong Kong Cantonese, an ongoing sound change that concerns the merging of tones in perception, production or both in a portion of native speakers, to examine the possible relationship between tone merger and musical and pitch abilities. Although a previous study has reported the occurrence of tone merger independently of musical training, it has not been investigated before whether tone-merging individuals, especially those merging tones in perception, would have inferior musical perception and fine-grained pitch sensitivities, given the close relationship of speech and music. To this end, we tested three groups of tone-merging individuals with various tone perception and production profiles on musical perception and pitch threshold tasks, in comparison to a group of Cantonese speakers with congenital amusia, and another group of controls without tone merger or amusia. Additionally, the amusics were compared with tone-merging individuals on the details of their tone discrimination and production profiles. The results showed a clear dissociation of tone merger and amusia, with the tone-merging individuals exhibiting intact musical and pitch abilities; on the other hand, the amusics demonstrated widespread difficulties in tone discrimination yet intact tone production, in contrast to the highly selective confusion of a specific tone pair in production or discrimination in tone-merging individuals. These findings provide the first evidence that tone merger and amusia are distinct from each other, and further suggest that the cause of tone merger may lie elsewhere rather than being driven by musical or pitch deficits. We also discussed issues arising from the current findings regarding the neural mechanisms of tone merger and amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caicai Zhang
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
- * E-mail:
| | - Oi-Yee Ho
- Ear Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jing Shao
- Department of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jinghua Ou
- Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America
| | - Sam-Po Law
- Unit of Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
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28
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Abstract
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to review recent hypotheses on the evolutionary origins of music in Homo sapiens, taking into account the most influential traditional hypotheses. To date, theories derived from evolution have focused primarily on the importance that music carries in solving detailed adaptive problems. The three most influential theoretical concepts have described the evolution of human music in terms of 1) sexual selection, 2) the formation of social bonds, or treated it 3) as a byproduct. According to recent proposals, traditional hypotheses are flawed or insufficient in fully explaining the complexity of music in Homo sapiens. This paper will critically discuss three traditional hypotheses of music evolution (music as an effect of sexual selection, a mechanism of social bonding, and a byproduct), as well as and two recent concepts of music evolution - music as a credible signal and Music and Social Bonding (MSB) hypothesis.
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29
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Impaired face recognition is associated with abnormal gray matter volume in the posterior cingulate cortex in congenital amusia. Neuropsychologia 2021; 156:107833. [PMID: 33757844 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2020] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is as a neurodevelopment disorder primarily defined by impairment in pitch discrimination and pitch memory. Interestingly, it has been reported that individuals with congenital amusia also exhibit deficits in face recognition (prosopagnosia). One explanation of such comorbidity is that the neural substrates of pitch recognition and face recognition may be similar. To test this hypothesis, face recognition ability was assessed using the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and gray matter volume was determined through voxel-based morphometry (VBM) among participants with and without congenital amusia. As expected, participants with amusia performed worse on the CFMT test and showed reduced gray matter volume (GMV) in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), the superior temporal gyrus (STG), and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the right hemisphere, when compared with matched controls. Furthermore, correlation analyses demonstrated that the CFMT score was positively related to MTG, STG, and PCC GMV in all participants, while separate analyses of each group found a positive correlation of CFMT score and PCC GMV in amusics. These findings suggest that face recognition is associated with a widely distributed microstructural network in the human brain and the PCC plays an important role in both pitch recognition and face recognition in amusics. In addition, neurodevelopmental disorders such as congenital amusia and prosopagnosia may share a common neural substrate.
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30
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Couvignou M, Kolinsky R. Comorbidity and cognitive overlap between developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia in children. Neuropsychologia 2021; 155:107811. [PMID: 33647287 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Revised: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia are two specific neurodevelopmental disorders that affect reading and music perception, respectively. Similarities at perceptual, cognitive, and anatomical levels raise the possibility that a common factor is at play in their emergence, albeit in different domains. However, little consideration has been given to what extent they can co-occur. A first adult study suggested a 30% amusia rate in dyslexia and a 25% dyslexia rate in amusia (Couvignou et al., Cognitive Neuropsychology 2019). We present newly acquired data from 38 dyslexic and 38 typically developing children. These were assessed with literacy and phonological tests, as well as with three musical tests: the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Abilities, a pitch and time change detection task, and a singing task. Overall, about 34% of the dyslexic children were musically impaired, a proportion that is significantly higher than both the estimated 1.5-4% prevalence of congenital amusia in the general population and the rate of 5% observed within the control group. They were mostly affected in the pitch dimension, both in terms of perception and production. Correlations and prediction links were found between pitch processing skills and language measures after partialing out confounding factors. These findings are discussed with regard to cognitive and neural explanatory hypotheses of a comorbidity between dyslexia and amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manon Couvignou
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Régine Kolinsky
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium; Fonds de La Recherche Scientifique-FNRS (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium
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31
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Cheung YL, Zhang C, Zhang Y. Emotion processing in congenital amusia: the deficits do not generalize to written emotion words. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2021; 35:101-116. [PMID: 31986915 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2020.1719209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2019] [Revised: 01/10/2020] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a lifelong impairment in musical ability. Individuals with amusia are found to show reduced sensitivity to emotion recognition in speech prosody and silent facial expressions, implying a possible cross-modal emotion-processing deficit. However, it is not clear whether the observed deficits are primarily confined to socio-emotional contexts, where visual cues (facial expression) often co-occur with auditory cues (emotion prosody) to express intended emotions, or extend to linguistic emotion processing. In order to better understand the underlying deficiency mechanism of emotion processing in individuals with amusia, we examined whether reduced sensitivity to emotional processing extends to the recognition of emotion category and valence of written words in individuals with amusia. Twenty Cantonese speakers with amusia and 17 controls were tested in three experiments: (1) emotion prosody rating, in which participants rated how much each spoken sentence was expressed in each of the four emotions on 7-point rating scales; (2) written word emotion recognition, in which participants recognized the emotion of written emotion words; and (3) written word valence judgment, in which participants judged the valence of written words. Results showed that participants with amusia preformed significantly less accurately than controls in emotion prosody recognition; in contrast, the two groups showed no significant difference in accuracy rates in both written word tasks (emotion recognition and valence judgment). The results indicate that the impairment of individuals with amusia in emotion processing may not generalize to linguistic emotion processing in written words, implying that the emotion deficit is likely to be restricted to socio-emotional contexts in individuals with amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Lam Cheung
- School of Management, Cranfield University , Cranfield, UK
| | - Caicai Zhang
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong, SAR, China
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong, SAR, China
| | - Yubin Zhang
- Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California, USA
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32
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Fernandez NB, Vuilleumier P, Gosselin N, Peretz I. Influence of Background Musical Emotions on Attention in Congenital Amusia. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 14:566841. [PMID: 33568976 PMCID: PMC7868440 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.566841] [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: 05/28/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital amusia in its most common form is a disorder characterized by a musical pitch processing deficit. Although pitch is involved in conveying emotion in music, the implications for pitch deficits on musical emotion judgements is still under debate. Relatedly, both limited and spared musical emotion recognition was reported in amusia in conditions where emotion cues were not determined by musical mode or dissonance. Additionally, assumed links between musical abilities and visuo-spatial attention processes need further investigation in congenital amusics. Hence, we here test to what extent musical emotions can influence attentional performance. Fifteen congenital amusic adults and fifteen healthy controls matched for age and education were assessed in three attentional conditions: executive control (distractor inhibition), alerting, and orienting (spatial shift) while music expressing either joy, tenderness, sadness, or tension was presented. Visual target detection was in the normal range for both accuracy and response times in the amusic relative to the control participants. Moreover, in both groups, music exposure produced facilitating effects on selective attention that appeared to be driven by the arousal dimension of musical emotional content, with faster correct target detection during joyful compared to sad music. These findings corroborate the idea that pitch processing deficits related to congenital amusia do not impede other cognitive domains, particularly visual attention. Furthermore, our study uncovers an intact influence of music and its emotional content on the attentional abilities of amusic individuals. The results highlight the domain-selectivity of the pitch disorder in congenital amusia, which largely spares the development of visual attention and affective systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalia B Fernandez
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Fundamental Neuroscience, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Patrik Vuilleumier
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Fundamental Neuroscience, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathalie Gosselin
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Isabelle Peretz
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
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33
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Liao X, Sun J, Jin Z, Wu D, Liu J. Cortical Morphological Changes in Congenital Amusia: Surface-Based Analyses. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:721720. [PMID: 35095585 PMCID: PMC8794692 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.721720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2021] [Accepted: 12/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Congenital amusia (CA) is a rare disorder characterized by deficits in pitch perception, and many structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have been conducted to better understand its neural bases. However, a structural magnetic resonance imaging analysis using a surface-based morphology method to identify regions with cortical features abnormalities at the vertex-based level has not yet been performed. Methods: Fifteen participants with CA and 13 healthy controls underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. A surface-based morphology method was used to identify anatomical abnormalities. Then, the surface parameters' mean value of the identified clusters with statistically significant between-group differences were extracted and compared. Finally, Pearson's correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation between the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) scores and surface parameters. Results: The CA group had significantly lower MBEA scores than the healthy controls (p = 0.000). The CA group exhibited a significant higher fractal dimension in the right caudal middle frontal gyrus and a lower sulcal depth in the right pars triangularis gyrus (p < 0.05; false discovery rate-corrected at the cluster level) compared to healthy controls. There were negative correlations between the mean fractal dimension values in the right caudal middle frontal gyrus and MBEA score, including the mean MBEA score (r = -0.5398, p = 0.0030), scale score (r = -0.5712, p = 0.0015), contour score (r = -0.4662, p = 0.0124), interval score (r = -0.4564, p = 0.0146), rhythmic score (r = -0.5133, p = 0.0052), meter score (r = -0.3937, p = 0.0382), and memory score (r = -0.3879, p = 0.0414). There was a significant positive correlation between the mean sulcal depth in the right pars triangularis gyrus and the MBEA score, including the mean score (r = 0.5130, p = 0.0052), scale score (r = 0.5328, p = 0.0035), interval score (r = 0.4059, p = 0.0321), rhythmic score (r = 0.5733, p = 0.0014), meter score (r = 0.5061, p = 0.0060), and memory score (r = 0.4001, p = 0.0349). Conclusion: Individuals with CA exhibit cortical morphological changes in the right hemisphere. These findings may indicate that the neural basis of speech perception and memory impairments in individuals with CA is associated with abnormalities in the right pars triangularis gyrus and middle frontal gyrus, and that these cortical abnormalities may be a neural marker of CA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuan Liao
- Department of Radiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Junjie Sun
- Department of Radiology, The Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
| | - Zhishuai Jin
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - DaXing Wu
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Jun Liu
- Department of Radiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.,Clinical Research Center for Medical Imaging in Hunan Province, Changsha, China.,Department of Radiology Quality Control Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
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34
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Marion-St-Onge C, Weiss MW, Sharda M, Peretz I. What Makes Musical Prodigies? Front Psychol 2020; 11:566373. [PMID: 33362630 PMCID: PMC7759486 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Musical prodigies reach exceptionally high levels of achievement before adolescence. Despite longstanding interest and fascination in musical prodigies, little is known about their psychological profile. Here we assess to what extent practice, intelligence, and personality make musical prodigies a distinct category of musician. Nineteen former or current musical prodigies (aged 12–34) were compared to 35 musicians (aged 14–37) with either an early (mean age 6) or late (mean age 10) start but similar amount of musical training, and 16 non-musicians (aged 14–34). All completed a Wechsler IQ test, the Big Five Inventory, the Autism Spectrum Quotient, the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire, the Dispositional Flow Scale, and a detailed history of their lifetime music practice. None of the psychological traits distinguished musical prodigies from control musicians or non-musicians except their propensity to report flow during practice. The other aspects that differentiated musical prodigies from their peers were the intensity of their practice before adolescence, and the source of their motivation when they began to play. Thus practice, by itself, does not make a prodigy. The results are compatible with multifactorial models of expertise, with prodigies lying at the high end of the continuum. In summary, prodigies are expected to present brain predispositions facilitating their success in learning an instrument, which could be amplified by their early and intense practice happening at a moment when brain plasticity is heightened.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chanel Marion-St-Onge
- Department of Psychology, International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Michael W Weiss
- Department of Psychology, International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Megha Sharda
- Department of Psychology, International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Isabelle Peretz
- Department of Psychology, International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
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35
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Re-Sounding Alarms: Designing Ergonomic Auditory Interfaces by Embracing Musical Insights. Healthcare (Basel) 2020; 8:healthcare8040389. [PMID: 33049954 PMCID: PMC7711797 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare8040389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Auditory alarms are an important component of human–computer interfaces, used in mission-critical industries such as aviation, nuclear power plants, and hospital settings. Unfortunately, problems with recognition, detection, and annoyance continue to hamper their effectiveness. Historically, they appear designed more in response to engineering constraints than principles of hearing science. Here we argue that auditory perception in general and music perception in particular hold valuable lessons for alarm designers. We also discuss ongoing research suggesting that the temporal complexity of musical tones offers promising insight into new ways of addressing widely recognized shortcomings of current alarms.
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36
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Pradilla I, Tierradentro-García LO, Palacios-Ariza MA, Díaz-Forero AF, Botero-Meneses JS, Talero-Gutiérrez C. Congenital amusia and academic performance among Colombian university students. Trends Neurosci Educ 2020; 20:100133. [PMID: 32917306 DOI: 10.1016/j.tine.2020.100133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2019] [Revised: 05/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Congenital amusia is a rare neurogenetic and neuropsychological condition which hinders the ability to recognize variations in all aspects of a musical piece. Although previous studies have determined the prevalence of congenital amusia in the general population, few have studied its presence among university students. Findings regarding the association between this condition and academic performance are equivocal, although evidence suggests that musical training improves scholastic achievement. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study on a sample of 383 university students, all pursuing health-related degrees, comparing their class rank with their performance on the BRAMS Online Test for amusia. RESULTS We found a prevalence of 0.52% for pitch-based amusia. When applying the Off-Scale test failure criterion for the definition of amusia in our sample, we found a prevalence of 4.4%. Logistic models showed an increase in risk of poor academic performance (lowest quartile) in subjects who failed the off-scale test (Odds Ratio: 7.14 95% CI 2.59-19.6) and who met any of the described definitions of amusia (Odds Ratio: 4.89 95% CI 2.24-10.7). CONCLUSIONS Both musical training and self-report of musical ability significantly affected test results. Although musical education shows some effect over academic performance, further studies are required to determine if this is due to differential effects in subjects with and without amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iván Pradilla
- Neuroscience Research Group (NeURos), Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Cra 24 #63C-74 1st floor, Bogotá 111211, D.C., Colombia.
| | - Luis O Tierradentro-García
- Undergraduate Research Group in Neuroscience (NeURos), Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Cra 24 #63C-74 1st floor, Bogotá 111211, D.C., Colombia.
| | - Maria A Palacios-Ariza
- Research Unit, Fundación Universitaria Sanitas, Calle 23 # 66-46 Clinica Colombia, 5th Floor, Bogotá 111321, D.C., Colombia.
| | - Andrés F Díaz-Forero
- Undergraduate Research Group in Neuroscience (NeURos), Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Cra 24 #63C-74 1st floor, Bogotá 111211, D.C., Colombia.
| | - Juan S Botero-Meneses
- Neuroscience Research Group (NeURos), Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Cra 24 #63C-74 1st floor, Bogotá 111211, D.C., Colombia.
| | - Claudia Talero-Gutiérrez
- Neuroscience Research Group (NeURos), Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Cra 24 #63C-74 1st floor, Bogotá 111211, D.C., Colombia.
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37
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Abstract
Music comprises a diverse category of cognitive phenomena that likely represent both the effects of psychological adaptations that are specific to music (e.g., rhythmic entrainment) and the effects of adaptations for non-musical functions (e.g., auditory scene analysis). How did music evolve? Here, we show that prevailing views on the evolution of music - that music is a byproduct of other evolved faculties, evolved for social bonding, or evolved to signal mate quality - are incomplete or wrong. We argue instead that music evolved as a credible signal in at least two contexts: coalitional interactions and infant care. Specifically, we propose that (1) the production and reception of coordinated, entrained rhythmic displays is a co-evolved system for credibly signaling coalition strength, size, and coordination ability; and (2) the production and reception of infant-directed song is a co-evolved system for credibly signaling parental attention to secondarily altricial infants. These proposals, supported by interdisciplinary evidence, suggest that basic features of music, such as melody and rhythm, result from adaptations in the proper domain of human music. The adaptations provide a foundation for the cultural evolution of music in its actual domain, yielding the diversity of musical forms and musical behaviors found worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel A Mehr
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138, ; https://; https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/epl
- Data Science Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138
- School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington6012, New Zealand
| | - Max M Krasnow
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138, ; https://; https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/epl
| | - Gregory A Bryant
- Department of Communication, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095, ; https://gabryant.bol.ucla.edu
- Center for Behavior, Evolution, & Culture, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Edward H Hagen
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA98686, USA. ; https://anthro.vancouver.wsu.edu/people/hagen
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38
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Lacey S, Nguyen J, Schneider P, Sathian K. Crossmodal Visuospatial Effects on Auditory Perception of Musical Contour. Multisens Res 2020; 34:113-127. [PMID: 33706275 DOI: 10.1163/22134808-bja10034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2019] [Accepted: 07/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The crossmodal correspondence between auditory pitch and visuospatial elevation (in which high- and low-pitched tones are associated with high and low spatial elevation respectively) has been proposed as the basis for Western musical notation. One implication of this is that music perception engages visuospatial processes and may not be exclusively auditory. Here, we investigated how music perception is influenced by concurrent visual stimuli. Participants listened to unfamiliar five-note musical phrases with four kinds of pitch contour (rising, falling, rising-falling, or falling-rising), accompanied by incidental visual contours that were either congruent (e.g., auditory rising/visual rising) or incongruent (e.g., auditory rising/visual falling) and judged whether the final note of the musical phrase was higher or lower in pitch than the first. Response times for the auditory judgment were significantly slower for incongruent compared to congruent trials, i.e., there was a congruency effect, even though the visual contours were incidental to the auditory task. These results suggest that music perception, although generally regarded as an auditory experience, may actually be multisensory in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Lacey
- 1Department of Neurology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA.,2Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA
| | - James Nguyen
- 1Department of Neurology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA
| | - Peter Schneider
- 3Department of Neuroradiology, Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany.,4Department of Neurology, Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - K Sathian
- 1Department of Neurology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA.,2Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA.,5Department of Psychology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033-0859, USA
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39
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Shao J, Zhang C. Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1411. [PMID: 32733321 PMCID: PMC7358218 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2020] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital amusia is an inborn neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch processing, which also induces impairment in lexical tone perception. However, it has not been examined before how the brain specialization of lexical tone perception is affected in amusics. The current study adopted the dichotic listening paradigm to examine this issue, testing 18 Cantonese-speaking amusics and 18 matched controls on pitch/lexical tone identification and discrimination in three conditions: non-speech tone, low syllable variation, and high syllable variation. For typical listeners, the discrimination accuracy was higher with shorter RT in the left ear regardless of the stimulus types, suggesting a left-ear advantage in discrimination. When the demand of phonological processing increased, as in the identification task, shorter RT was still obtained in the left ear, however, the identification accuracy revealed a bilateral pattern. Taken together, the results of the identification task revealed a reduced LEA or a shift from the right hemisphere to bilateral processing in identification. Amusics exhibited overall poorer performance in both identification and discrimination tasks, indicating that pitch/lexical tone processing in dichotic listening settings was impaired, but there was no evidence that amusics showed different ear preference from controls. These findings provided temporary evidence that although amusics demonstrate deficient neural mechanisms of pitch/lexical tone processing, their ear preference patterns might not be affected. These results broadened the understanding of the nature of pitch and lexical tone processing deficiencies in amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Shao
- School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.,Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Caicai Zhang
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.,Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
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40
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Szyfter K, Witt MP. How far musicality and perfect pitch are derived from genetic factors? J Appl Genet 2020; 61:407-414. [PMID: 32533421 PMCID: PMC7413874 DOI: 10.1007/s13353-020-00563-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2020] [Revised: 05/20/2020] [Accepted: 05/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
There is an agreement about joint genetic and environmental background of musical reception and performance. Musical abilities tend to cluster in families. The studies done on a random population, twins and families of gifted musicians provided a strong support for genetic contribution. Modern biomolecular techniques exploring linkage analysis, variation of gene copy number, scanning for whole-genome expression helped to identify genes, or chromosome regions associated with musical aptitude. Some studies were focused on rare ability to recognize tone without reference that is known as a perfect pitch where a far ethnic differentiation was established. On the other hand, gene deletion leading to dysfunction in amusical individuals also indicated appropriate loci “by negation.” The strongest support for an association of genes with musicality was provided for genes: AVPR1 (12q14.2), SLC6A4 (17q11.2), GALM (2p22), PCDH7 (4p15.1), GATA2 (3q21.3), and few others as well for 4q22, 4q23, and 8q13–21 chromosome bands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krzysztof Szyfter
- Institute of Human Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Strzeszyńska 32, 60-479, Poznań, Poland
| | - Michał P Witt
- Institute of Human Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Strzeszyńska 32, 60-479, Poznań, Poland.
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41
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Shao J, Wang L, Zhang C. Talker Processing in Mandarin-Speaking Congenital Amusics. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2020; 63:1361-1375. [PMID: 32343927 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The ability to recognize individuals from their vocalizations is an important trait of human beings. In the current study, we aimed to examine how congenital amusia, an inborn pitch-processing disorder, affects discrimination and identification of talkers' voices. Method Twenty Mandarin-speaking amusics and 20 controls were tested on talker discrimination and identification in four types of contexts that varied in the degree of language familiarity: Mandarin real words, Mandarin pseudowords, Arabic words, and reversed Mandarin speech. Results The language familiarity effect was more evident in the talker identification task than the discrimination task for both participant groups, and talker identification accuracy decreased as native phonological representations were removed from the stimuli. Importantly, amusics demonstrated degraded performance in both native speech conditions that contained phonological/linguistic information to facilitate talker identification and nonnative conditions where talker voice processing primarily relied on phonetics cues, including pitch. Moreover, the performance in talker processing can be predicted by the participants' musical ability and phonological memory capacity. Conclusions The results provided a first set of behavioral evidence that individuals with amusia are impaired in the ability of human voice identification. Meanwhile, it is found that amusia is not only a pitch disorder but is likely to affect the phonological processing of speech, in terms of using phonological information in native speech to analyze a talker's identity. The above findings expanded the understanding of the nature and scope of congenital amusia. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12170379.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Shao
- School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Lan Wang
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Caicai Zhang
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
- Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
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42
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Basic timekeeping deficit in the Beat-based Form of Congenital Amusia. Sci Rep 2020; 10:8325. [PMID: 32433522 PMCID: PMC7239916 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65034-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans have the capacity to match movements’ timing with the beat of music. Yet some individuals show marked difficulties. The causes of these difficulties remain to be determined. Here, we investigate to what extend a beat synchronization deficit can be traced to basic timekeeping abilities. Eight beat-impaired individuals who were unable to successfully synchronize to the beat of music were compared to matched controls in their ability to tap a self-paced regular beat, to tap to a metronome spanning a large range of tempi (225–1709 ms inter-tone onsets), and to maintain the tempi after the sounds had ceased. Whether paced by a metronome or not, beat-impaired individuals showed poorer regularity (higher variability) in tapping, with an inability to synchronize at a fast tempo (225 ms between beats) or to sustain tapping at slow tempi (above 1 sec). Yet, they showed evidence of predictive and flexible processing. We suggest that the beat impairment is due to imprecise internal timekeeping mechanism.
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43
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Jasmin K, Dick F, Holt LL, Tierney A. Tailored perception: Individuals' speech and music perception strategies fit their perceptual abilities. J Exp Psychol Gen 2020; 149:914-934. [PMID: 31589067 PMCID: PMC7133494 DOI: 10.1037/xge0000688] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2018] [Revised: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/12/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Perception involves integration of multiple dimensions that often serve overlapping, redundant functions, for example, pitch, duration, and amplitude in speech. Individuals tend to prioritize these dimensions differently (stable, individualized perceptual strategies), but the reason for this has remained unclear. Here we show that perceptual strategies relate to perceptual abilities. In a speech cue weighting experiment (trial N = 990), we first demonstrate that individuals with a severe deficit for pitch perception (congenital amusics; N = 11) categorize linguistic stimuli similarly to controls (N = 11) when the main distinguishing cue is duration, which they perceive normally. In contrast, in a prosodic task where pitch cues are the main distinguishing factor, we show that amusics place less importance on pitch and instead rely more on duration cues-even when pitch differences in the stimuli are large enough for amusics to discern. In a second experiment testing musical and prosodic phrase interpretation (N = 16 amusics; 15 controls), we found that relying on duration allowed amusics to overcome their pitch deficits to perceive speech and music successfully. We conclude that auditory signals, because of their redundant nature, are robust to impairments for specific dimensions, and that optimal speech and music perception strategies depend not only on invariant acoustic dimensions (the physical signal), but on perceptual dimensions whose precision varies across individuals. Computational models of speech perception (indeed, all types of perception involving redundant cues e.g., vision and touch) should therefore aim to account for the precision of perceptual dimensions and characterize individuals as well as groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Fred Dick
- Department of Psychological Sciences
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44
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Ladányi E, Persici V, Fiveash A, Tillmann B, Gordon RL. Is atypical rhythm a risk factor for developmental speech and language disorders? WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2020; 11:e1528. [PMID: 32244259 PMCID: PMC7415602 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2019] [Revised: 03/07/2020] [Accepted: 03/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Although a growing literature points to substantial variation in speech/language abilities related to individual differences in musical abilities, mainstream models of communication sciences and disorders have not yet incorporated these individual differences into childhood speech/language development. This article reviews three sources of evidence in a comprehensive body of research aligning with three main themes: (a) associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, (b) musical rhythm in children with developmental speech/language disorders and common comorbid attentional and motor disorders, and (c) individual differences in mechanisms underlying rhythm processing in infants and their relationship with later speech/language development. In light of converging evidence on associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, we propose the Atypical Rhythm Risk Hypothesis, which posits that individuals with atypical rhythm are at higher risk for developmental speech/language disorders. The hypothesis is framed within the larger epidemiological literature in which recent methodological advances allow for large-scale testing of shared underlying biology across clinically distinct disorders. A series of predictions for future work testing the Atypical Rhythm Risk Hypothesis are outlined. We suggest that if a significant body of evidence is found to support this hypothesis, we can envision new risk factor models that incorporate atypical rhythm to predict the risk of developing speech/language disorders. Given the high prevalence of speech/language disorders in the population and the negative long-term social and economic consequences of gaps in identifying children at-risk, these new lines of research could potentially positively impact access to early identification and treatment. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Neuroscience > Development Linguistics > Language Acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enikő Ladányi
- Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Valentina Persici
- Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.,Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy.,Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Anna Fiveash
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics Team, CRNL, INSERM, University of Lyon 1, U1028, CNRS, UMR5292, Lyon, France
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics Team, CRNL, INSERM, University of Lyon 1, U1028, CNRS, UMR5292, Lyon, France
| | - Reyna L Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.,Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.,Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.,Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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45
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Lense MD, Camarata S. PRESS-Play: Musical Engagement as a Motivating Platform for Social Interaction and Social Play in Young Children with ASD. MUSIC & SCIENCE 2020; 3:10.1177/2059204320933080. [PMID: 32832103 PMCID: PMC7440205 DOI: 10.1177/2059204320933080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Musical experiences are ubiquitous in early childhood. Beyond potential benefits of musical activities for young children with typical development, there has long been interest in harnessing music for therapeutic purposes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, there is debate as to the effectiveness of these approaches and thus a need to identify mechanisms of change (or active ingredients) by which musical experiences may impact social development in young children with ASD. In this review, we introduce the PRESS-Play framework, which conceptualizes musical activities for young children with ASD within an applied behavior analysis framework consistent with the principles of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions. Specifically, the PRESS-Play framework proposes that musical activities support key elements of evidence-based approaches for social engagement including predictability, reinforcement, emotion regulation, shared attention, and social play context, providing a platform for delivery and receipt of social and behavioral instruction via a transactional, developmental approach. PRESS-Play considers that these factors may impact not only the child with ASD but also their interaction partner, such as a parent or peer, creating contexts conducive for validated social engagement and interaction. These principles point to focused theories of change within a clinical-translational framework in order to experimentally test components of social-musical engagement and conduct rigorous, evidence-based intervention studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam D. Lense
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
| | - Stephen Camarata
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
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46
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Li M, Tang W, Liu C, Nan Y, Wang W, Dong Q. Vowel and Tone Identification for Mandarin Congenital Amusics: Effects of Vowel Type and Semantic Content. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:4300-4308. [PMID: 31805240 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-s-18-0440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose This study aimed to explore the effects of Mandarin congenital amusia with or without lexical tone deficit (i.e., tone agnosia and pure amusia) on Mandarin vowel and tone identification in different types of vowels (e.g., monophthong, diphthongs, and triphthongs) embedded in consonant-vowel contexts with and without semantic content. Method Thirteen pure amusics (i.e., amusics with normal lexical processing), 5 tone agnosics (i.e., with lexical tone deficit), and 12 controls were screened with Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia and lexical tone tests (Nan et al., 2010; Peretz et al., 2003). Vowel-plus-tone identification tasks with the factors of vowel type and syllables with and without semantic content (e.g., real and nonsense words) were examined among the 3 groups, and identification scores were calculated in 3 formats: vowel-plus-tone identification, vowel identification, and tone identification. Results Tone agnosics showed significantly poorer performances on identifications of vowel, tone, and vowel plus tone across monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs in both real and nonsense words compared to pure amusics and controls. Their deficits were similar across the 3 types of vowels, while the deficit on vowel-plus-tone identification was more severe in nonsense words than in real words. On the other hand, pure amusics performed similarly with controls across all these conditions. Conclusions Tone agnosia might affect both musical pitch and phonological processing, resulting in deficits in lexical tone and vowel perception. On the contrary, pure amusics's effect is primarily on musical pitch perception but not on lexical tone or phonemic deficit. Vowel type did not affect speech deficits for tone agnosics, while they relied more on semantic content as a compensation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingshuang Li
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin
| | - Wei Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Chang Liu
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin
| | - Yun Nan
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Wenjing Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Qi Dong
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China
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47
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Tao W, Huang H, Haponenko H, Sun HJ. Face recognition and memory in congenital amusia. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0225519. [PMID: 31790454 PMCID: PMC6886812 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2019] [Accepted: 11/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital amusia, commonly known as tone deafness, is a lifelong impairment of music perception and production. It remains a question of debate whether the impairments in musical domain observed in congenital amusia are paralleled in other non-musical perceptual abilities. Using behavioral measures in two experiments, the current study explored face perception and memory in congenital amusics. Both congenital amusics and matched controls performed a face perception task (Experiment 1) and an old/novel object memory task (for both faces and houses, Experiment 2). The results showed that the congenital amusic group had significantly slower reaction times than that in matched control group when identifying whether two faces presented together were the same or different. For different face-pairs, the deficit was greater for upright faces compared with inverted faces. For object memory task, the congenital amusic group also showed worse memory performance than the control group. The results of the present study suggest that the impairment attributed to congenital amusia is not only limited to music, but also extends to visual perception and visual memory domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weidong Tao
- Department of Psychology, School of Teacher Education, Huzhou Normal University, Huzhou, Zhejiang, China
- * E-mail:
| | - Huayan Huang
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Lingnan Normal University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China
| | - Hanna Haponenko
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamiliton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Hong-jin Sun
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamiliton, Ontario, Canada
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48
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Pralus A, Fornoni L, Bouet R, Gomot M, Bhatara A, Tillmann B, Caclin A. Emotional prosody in congenital amusia: Impaired and spared processes. Neuropsychologia 2019; 134:107234. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 08/12/2019] [Accepted: 10/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
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49
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Yoon K, Alsabbagh N, Jang H. Temporal Processing Abilities of Adults with Tune Deafness. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019. [DOI: 10.21848/asr.2019.15.3.196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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50
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Lagrois MÉ, Palmer C, Peretz I. Poor Synchronization to Musical Beat Generalizes to Speech. Brain Sci 2019; 9:brainsci9070157. [PMID: 31277417 PMCID: PMC6680836 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci9070157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Accepted: 07/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The rhythmic nature of speech may recruit entrainment mechanisms in a manner similar to music. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that individuals who display a severe deficit in synchronizing their taps to a musical beat (called beat-deaf here) would also experience difficulties entraining to speech. The beat-deaf participants and their matched controls were required to align taps with the perceived regularity in the rhythm of naturally spoken, regularly spoken, and sung sentences. The results showed that beat-deaf individuals synchronized their taps less accurately than the control group across conditions. In addition, participants from both groups exhibited more inter-tap variability to natural speech than to regularly spoken and sung sentences. The findings support the idea that acoustic periodicity is a major factor in domain-general entrainment to both music and speech. Therefore, a beat-finding deficit may affect periodic auditory rhythms in general, not just those for music.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-Élaine Lagrois
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada.
- Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada.
| | - Caroline Palmer
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
| | - Isabelle Peretz
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
- Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
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