The relationship between pitch discrimination and vocal production: comparison of vocal and instrumental musicians

The Relationship Between Pitch Discrimination and Acoustic Voice Measures in a Cohort of Female Speakers

BACKGROUND

Evidence across a range of musically trained, hearing disordered and voice disordered populations present conflicting results regarding the relationship between pitch discrimination (PD) and voice quality. PD characteristics of female speakers with and without a musical training background and no self-reported voice disorder, and the relationship between PD and voice quality in this particular population, have not been investigated.

AIMS

To evaluate PD characteristics in a cohort of female participants without a self-reported voice disorder and the relationship between PD and acoustic voice measures.

METHOD

One hundred fourteen female participants were studied, all of whom self-reported as being non-voice disordered. All completed the Newcastle Assessment of Pitch Discrimination which involved a two-tone PD task. Their voices were recorded producing standardized vocal tasks. Voice samples were acoustically analyzed for frequency-domain measures (fundamental frequency and its standard deviation, and harmonics-to-noise ratio) and spectral-domain measures (cepstral peak prominence and the Cepstral/Spectral Index of Dysphonia). Data were analyzed for the whole cohort and for musical and non-musical training backgrounds.

RESULTS

In the whole cohort, there were no significant correlations between PD and acoustic voice measures. PD accuracy in musically trained speakers was better than in non-trained speakers and correlated with fundamental frequency standard deviation in prolonged vowel tasks. Vocalists demonstrated superior PD accuracy and fundamental frequency standard deviation in prolonged vowels compared to instrumentalists but did not show significant correlations between PD and acoustic measures. The Newcastle Assessment of Pitch Discrimination was a reliable tool, showing moderate-good prediction value in differentiating musical background.

CONCLUSIONS

There was little evidence of a relationship between PD and acoustic measures of voice quality, regardless of musical training background and superior PD accuracy among the musically trained. These data do not support ideas concerning the co-development of perception and action among individuals identified as having voice quality measures within normal ranges. Numerous measures of voice quality, including measures sensitive to pitch, did not distinguish across musically and non-musically trained individuals, despite individual differences in pitch discrimination.

Temporal resolution and pitch discrimination in music education: novel data in children

BACKGROUND

Rehabilitation of hearing and listening difficulties through neuroplasticity of the auditory nervous system is a promising technique. Evidence of enhanced auditory processing in adult musicians is often not based on clinical auditory processing tests and is lacking in children with musical education.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to investigate the temporal resolution and frequency discrimination elements of auditory processing both in adults and children with musical education and to compare them with those without any musical education.

METHODS

Participants consisted of ten children without musical training and ten children with musical training with mean age 11.3 years and range 8-15 years as well as ten adults without musical education and ten adults with musical education with mean age 38.1 years and range 30-45 years. All participants were tested with two temporal resolution tests (GIN:Gaps-In-Noise and RGDT:Random Gap Detection Test), a temporal ordering frequency test (FPT:Frequency Pattern Test), and a frequency discrimination test (DLF: Different Limen for Frequency).

RESULTS

All test results revealed better performance in both children and adults with musical training for both ears.

CONCLUSION

A positive effect of formal music education for specific auditory processing elements in both children and adults is documented. Larger samples, longitudinal studies, as well as groups with impaired hearing and/or auditory processing are needed to further substantiate the effect shown.

Differential advantages of musical backgrounds on binaural integration and interaction skills in instrumentalists, vocalists, and non-musicians

Background

Musical perception requires a host of skills. Instrumental musicians place greater emphasis on motor coordination, whereas vocal musicians rehearse vocal sounds. The study explored the differential advantages of musical background on binaural integration and interaction in musicians (instrumentalists, vocalists) and compared them with age-matched non-musicians.

Methods

Eight six participants aged 20-40 y with normal hearing sensitivity were subjected to binaural tests using a standard group comparison research design. The participants were segregated into three groups - Group 1 included instrumentalists (n = 26, mean age: 17.73 ± 2.83 y), while Group 2 and Group 3 consisted of vocalists (n = 30, mean age: 19.30 ± 2.47 y) and non-musicians (n = 30, mean age: 18.20 ± 3.02 y) respectively. The binaural processes namely integration (Dichotic syllable test, DST; and virtual acoustic space identification - VASI) and interaction (Interaural difference thresholds for time and level: ITD & ILD), were administered on all the participants.

Results

Statistical analyses showed the main effect of musicianship. Bonferroni pair-wise test revealed that the musicians (instrumentalists and vocalists) outperformed (p < 0.05) non-musicians in all the tests. The differential advantage of the musical background was seen on the binaural integration test with instrumentalists performing better in the VASI test compared to vocalists, and vice-versa for DST. No difference was observed in interaction tasks (ITD & ILD) between vocalists and instrumentalists (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

Musical background-induced differential advantages can be reasonably noted in the binaural skills of instrumentalists and vocalists (compared to non-musicians).

Does Musicality Assist Foreign Language Learning? Perception and Production of Thai Vowels, Consonants and Lexical Tones by Musicians and Non-Musicians

The music and spoken language domains share acoustic properties such as fundamental frequency (f0, perceived as pitch), duration, resonance frequencies, and intensity. In speech, the acoustic properties form an essential part in differentiating between consonants, vowels, and lexical tones. This study investigated whether there is any advantage of musicality in the perception and production of Thai speech sounds. Two groups of English-speaking adults-one comprising formally trained musicians and the other non-musicians-were tested for their perception and production of Thai consonants, vowels, and tones. For both groups, the perception and production accuracy scores were higher for vowels than consonants and tones, and in production, there was also better accuracy for tones than consonants. Between the groups, musicians (defined as having more than five years of formal musical training) outperformed non-musicians (defined as having less than two years of formal musical training) in both the perception and production of all three sound types. Additional experiential factors that positively influenced the accuracy rates were the current hours of practice per week and those with some indication of an augmentation due to musical aptitude, but only in perception. These results suggest that music training, defined as formal training for more than five years, and musical training, expressed in hours of weekly practice, facilitate the perception and production of non-native speech sounds.

Prediction of Voice Fundamental Frequency and Intensity from Surface Electromyographic Signals of the Face and Neck

Silent speech interfaces (SSIs) enable speech recognition and synthesis in the absence of an acoustic signal. Yet, the archetypal SSI fails to convey the expressive attributes of prosody such as pitch and loudness, leading to lexical ambiguities. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of using surface electromyography (sEMG) as an approach for predicting continuous acoustic estimates of prosody. Ten participants performed a series of vocal tasks including sustained vowels, phrases, and monologues while acoustic data was recorded simultaneously with sEMG activity from muscles of the face and neck. A battery of time-, frequency-, and cepstral-domain features extracted from the sEMG signals were used to train deep regression neural networks to predict fundamental frequency and intensity contours from the acoustic signals. We achieved an average accuracy of 0.01 ST and precision of 0.56 ST for the estimation of fundamental frequency, and an average accuracy of 0.21 dB SPL and precision of 3.25 dB SPL for the estimation of intensity. This work highlights the importance of using sEMG as an alternative means of detecting prosody and shows promise for improving SSIs in future development.

Active Ingredients of Voice Therapy for Muscle Tension Voice Disorders: A Retrospective Data Audit

Background: Although voice therapy is the first line treatment for muscle-tension voice disorders (MTVD), no clinical research has investigated the role of specific active ingredients. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of active ingredients in the treatment of MTVD. A retrospective review of a clinical voice database was conducted on 68 MTVD patients who were treated using the optimal phonation task (OPT) and sob voice quality (SVQ), as well as two different processes: task variation and negative practice (NP). Mixed-model analysis was performed on auditory–perceptual and acoustic data from voice recordings at baseline and after each technique. Active ingredients were evaluated using effect sizes. Significant overall treatment effects were observed for the treatment program. Effect sizes ranged from 0.34 (post-NP) to 0.387 (post-SVQ) for overall severity ratings. Effect sizes ranged from 0.237 (post-SVQ) to 0.445 (post-NP) for a smoothed cepstral peak prominence measure. The treatment effects did not depend upon the MTVD type (primary or secondary), treating clinicians, nor the number of sessions and days between sessions. Implementation of individual techniques that promote improved voice quality and processes that support learning resulted in improved habitual voice quality. Both voice techniques and processes can be considered as active ingredients in voice therapy.

Intermittent theta burst stimulation over right somatosensory larynx cortex enhances vocal pitch-regulation in nonsingers

While the significance of auditory cortical regions for the development and maintenance of speech motor coordination is well established, the contribution of somatosensory brain areas to learned vocalizations such as singing is less well understood. To address these mechanisms, we applied intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a facilitatory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) protocol, over right somatosensory larynx cortex (S1) and a nonvocal dorsal S1 control area in participants without singing experience. A pitch-matching singing task was performed before and after iTBS to assess corresponding effects on vocal pitch regulation. When participants could monitor auditory feedback from their own voice during singing (Experiment I), no difference in pitch-matching performance was found between iTBS sessions. However, when auditory feedback was masked with noise (Experiment II), only larynx-S1 iTBS enhanced pitch accuracy (50-250 ms after sound onset) and pitch stability (>250 ms after sound onset until the end). Results indicate that somatosensory feedback plays a dominant role in vocal pitch regulation when acoustic feedback is masked. The acoustic changes moreover suggest that right larynx-S1 stimulation affected the preparation and involuntary regulation of vocal pitch accuracy, and that kinesthetic-proprioceptive processes play a role in the voluntary control of pitch stability in nonsingers. Together, these data provide evidence for a causal involvement of right larynx-S1 in vocal pitch regulation during singing.

Music Training Positively Influences the Preattentive Perception of Voice Onset Time in Children with Dyslexia: A Longitudinal Study

Previous results showed a positive influence of music training on linguistic abilities at both attentive and preattentive levels. Here, we investigate whether six months of active music training is more efficient than painting training to improve the preattentive processing of phonological parameters based on durations that are often impaired in children with developmental dyslexia (DD). Results were also compared to a control group of Typically Developing (TD) children matched on reading age. We used a Test–Training–Retest procedure and analysed the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and the N1 and N250 components of the Event-Related Potentials to syllables that differed in Voice Onset Time (VOT), vowel duration, and vowel frequency. Results were clear-cut in showing a normalization of the preattentive processing of VOT in children with DD after music training but not after painting training. They also revealed increased N250 amplitude to duration deviant stimuli in children with DD after music but not painting training, and no training effect on the preattentive processing of frequency. These findings are discussed in view of recent theories of dyslexia pointing to deficits in processing the temporal structure of speech. They clearly encourage the use of active music training for the rehabilitation of children with language impairments.

The relationship between acoustical and perceptual measures of vocal effort

Excessive vocal effort is a common clinical voice symptom, yet the acoustical manifestation of vocal effort and how that is perceived by speakers and listeners has not been fully elucidated. Here, 26 vocally healthy adults increased vocal effort during the production of the utterance /ifi/, followed by self-ratings of effort on a 100 mm visual analog scale. Twenty inexperienced listeners assessed the speakers' vocal effort using the visual sort-and-rate method. Previously proposed acoustical correlates of vocal effort were calculated, including: mean sound pressure level (SPL), mean fundamental frequency (f o), relative fundamental frequency (RFF) offset cycle 10 and onset cycle 1, harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), cepstral peak prominence and its standard deviation (SD), and low-to-high (L/H) spectral ratio and its SD. Two separate mixed-effects regression models yielded mean SPL, L/H ratio, and HNR as significant predictors of both speaker and listener ratings of vocal effort. RFF offset cycle 10 and mean f o were significant predictors of listener ratings only. Therefore, speakers and listeners attended to similar acoustical cues when making judgments of vocal effort, but listeners also used additional time-based information. Further work is needed to determine how vocal effort manifests in the speech signal in speakers with voice disorders.

Interaction of Musicianship and Aging: A Comparison of Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials

Objective. The goal of this study was to begin to explore whether the beneficial auditory neural effects of early music training persist throughout life and influence age-related changes in neurophysiological processing of sound. Design. Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) elicited by harmonic tone complexes were examined, including P1-N1-P2, mismatch negativity (MMN), and P3a. Study Sample. Data from older adult musicians (n = 8) and nonmusicians (n = 8) (ages 55–70 years) were compared to previous data from young adult musicians (n = 40) and nonmusicians (n = 20) (ages 18–33 years). Results. P1-N1-P2 amplitudes and latencies did not differ between older adult musicians and nonmusicians; however, MMN and P3a latencies for harmonic tone deviances were earlier for older musicians than older nonmusicians. Comparisons of P1-N1-P2, MMN, and P3a components between older and young adult musicians and nonmusicians suggest that P1 and P2 latencies are significantly affected by age, but not musicianship, while MMN and P3a appear to be more sensitive to effects of musicianship than aging. Conclusions. Findings support beneficial influences of musicianship on central auditory function and suggest a positive interaction between aging and musicianship on the auditory neural system.

On drawing a line through the spectrogram: how do we understand deficits of vocal pitch imitation?

In recent years there has been a remarkable increase in research focusing on deficits of pitch production in singing. A critical concern has been the identification of “poor pitch singers,” which we refer to more generally as individuals having a “vocal pitch imitation deficit.” The present paper includes a critical assessment of the assumption that vocal pitch imitation abilities can be treated as a dichotomy. Though this practice may be useful for data analysis and may be necessary within educational practice, we argue that this approach is complicated by a series of problems. Moreover, we argue that a more informative (and less problematic) approach comes from analyzing vocal pitch imitation abilities on a continuum, referred to as effect magnitude regression, and offer examples concerning how researchers may analyze data using this approach. We also argue that the understanding of this deficit may be better served by focusing on the effects of experimental manipulations on different individuals, rather than attempt to treat values of individual measures, and isolated tasks, as absolute measures of ability.

Individuals with congenital amusia imitate pitches more accurately in singing than in speaking: implications for music and language processing

In this study, we investigated the impact of congenital amusia, a disorder of musical processing, on speech and song imitation in speakers of a tone language, Mandarin. A group of 13 Mandarin-speaking individuals with congenital amusia and 13 matched controls were recorded while imitating a set of speech and two sets of song stimuli with varying pitch and rhythm patterns. The results indicated that individuals with congenital amusia were worse than controls in both speech and song imitation, in terms of both pitch matching (absolute and relative) and rhythm matching (relative time and number of time errors). Like the controls, individuals with congenital amusia achieved better absolute and relative pitch matching and made fewer pitch interval and contour errors in song than in speech imitation. These findings point toward domain-general pitch (and time) production deficits in congenital amusia, suggesting the presence of shared pitch production mechanisms but distinct requirements for pitch-matching accuracy in language and music processing.

Evidence for shared cognitive processing of pitch in music and language

Language and music epitomize the complex representational and computational capacities of the human mind. Strikingly similar in their structural and expressive features, a longstanding question is whether the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying these abilities are shared or distinct--either from each other or from other mental processes. One prominent feature shared between language and music is signal encoding using pitch, conveying pragmatics and semantics in language and melody in music. We investigated how pitch processing is shared between language and music by measuring consistency in individual differences in pitch perception across language, music, and three control conditions intended to assess basic sensory and domain-general cognitive processes. Individuals' pitch perception abilities in language and music were most strongly related, even after accounting for performance in all control conditions. These results provide behavioral evidence, based on patterns of individual differences, that is consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive mechanisms for pitch processing may be shared between language and music.

Accuracy of pitch matching significantly improved by live voice model

Singing is, undoubtedly, the most fundamental expression of our musical capacity, yet an estimated 10-15% of Western population sings "out-of-tune (OOT)." Previous research in children and adults suggests, albeit inconsistently, that imitating a human voice can improve pitch matching. In the present study, we focus on the potentially beneficial effects of the human voice and especially the live human voice. Eighteen participants varying in their singing abilities were required to imitate in singing a set of nine ascending and descending intervals presented to them in five different randomized blocked conditions: live piano, recorded piano, live voice using optimal voice production, recorded voice using optimal voice production, and recorded voice using artificial forced voice production. Pitch and interval matching in singing were much more accurate when participants repeated sung intervals as compared with intervals played to them on the piano. The advantage of the vocal over the piano stimuli was robust and emerged clearly regardless of whether piano tones were played live and in full view or were presented via recording. Live vocal stimuli elicited higher accuracy than recorded vocal stimuli, especially when the recorded vocal stimuli were produced in a forced vocal production. Remarkably, even those who would be considered OOT singers on the basis of their performance when repeating piano tones were able to pitch match live vocal sounds, with deviations well within the range of what is considered accurate singing (M=46.0, standard deviation=39.2 cents). In fact, those participants who were most OOT gained the most from the live voice model. Results are discussed in light of the dual auditory-motor encoding of pitch analogous to that found in speech.

Comprehensive genomic analyses associate UGT8 variants with musical ability in a Mongolian population

Background

Musical abilities such as recognising music and singing performance serve as means for communication and are instruments in sexual selection. Specific regions of the brain have been found to be activated by musical stimuli, but these have rarely been extended to the discovery of genes and molecules associated with musical ability.

Methods

A total of 1008 individuals from 73 families were enrolled and a pitch-production accuracy test was applied to determine musical ability. To identify genetic loci and variants that contribute to musical ability, we conducted family-based linkage and association analyses, and incorporated the results with data from exome sequencing and array comparative genomic hybridisation analyses.

Results

We found significant evidence of linkage at 4q23 with the nearest marker D4S2986 (LOD=3.1), whose supporting interval overlaps a previous study in Finnish families, and identified an intergenic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (rs1251078, p=8.4×10⁻¹⁷) near UGT8, a gene highly expressed in the central nervous system and known to act in brain organisation. In addition, a non-synonymous SNP in UGT8 was revealed to be highly associated with musical ability (rs4148254, p=8.0×10⁻¹⁷), and a 6.2 kb copy number loss near UGT8 showed a plausible association with musical ability (p=2.9×10⁻⁶).

Conclusions

This study provides new insight into the genetics of musical ability, exemplifying a methodology to assign functional significance to synonymous and non-coding alleles by integrating multiple experimental methods.

ERP correlates of auditory processing during automatic correction of unexpected perturbations in voice auditory feedback

Auditory sensory processing is an important element of the neural mechanisms controlling human vocalization. We evaluated which components of Event Related Potentials (ERP) elicited by the unexpected shift of fundamental frequency in a subject's own voice might correlate with his/her ability to process auditory information. A significant negative correlation between the latency of the N1 component of the ERP and the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia scores for Melodic organization was found. A possible functional role of neuronal activity underling the N1 component in voice control mechanisms is discussed.

Vocal accuracy and neural plasticity following micromelody-discrimination training

Background

Recent behavioral studies report correlational evidence to suggest that non-musicians with good pitch discrimination sing more accurately than those with poorer auditory skills. However, other studies have reported a dissociation between perceptual and vocal production skills. In order to elucidate the relationship between auditory discrimination skills and vocal accuracy, we administered an auditory-discrimination training paradigm to a group of non-musicians to determine whether training-enhanced auditory discrimination would specifically result in improved vocal accuracy.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We utilized micromelodies (i.e., melodies with seven different interval scales, each smaller than a semitone) as the main stimuli for auditory discrimination training and testing, and we used single-note and melodic singing tasks to assess vocal accuracy in two groups of non-musicians (experimental and control). To determine if any training-induced improvements in vocal accuracy would be accompanied by related modulations in cortical activity during singing, the experimental group of non-musicians also performed the singing tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Following training, the experimental group exhibited significant enhancements in micromelody discrimination compared to controls. However, we did not observe a correlated improvement in vocal accuracy during single-note or melodic singing, nor did we detect any training-induced changes in activity within brain regions associated with singing.

Conclusions/Significance

Given the observations from our auditory training regimen, we therefore conclude that perceptual discrimination training alone is not sufficient to improve vocal accuracy in non-musicians, supporting the suggested dissociation between auditory perception and vocal production.