Examining Individual Differences in Singing, Musical and Tone Language Ability in Adolescents and Young Adults with Dyslexia

Misjudgement of One's Own Performance? Exploring Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder (ADHD) and Individual Difference in Complex Music and Foreign Language Perception

In previous research, we detected that children and adolescents who were diagnosed with ADHD showed deficits in both complex auditory processing of musical stimuli and in musical performance when compared to controls. In this study, we were interested in whether we could detect similar or distinct findings when we use foreign speech perception tasks. Therefore, we recruited musically naïve participants (n = 25), music-educated participants (n = 25) and participants diagnosed with ADHD (n = 25) who were assessed for their short-term memory (STM) capacity and the ability to discriminate music and speech stimuli and we collected self-ratings of the participants' music and language performances. As expected, we found that young adults with ADHD show deficits in the perception of complex music and difficult speech perception stimuli. We also found that STM capacity was not impaired in young adults with ADHD and may not persist into young adulthood. In addition, subjective self-estimation about the participants' language and music performances revealed that the ADHD group overestimated their performance competence relatively compared to both control groups. As a result, the findings of our study suggest that individuals diagnosed with ADHD require a special training program that not only focuses on improving performance in perceptual skills of music and language but also requires metacognitive training to develop realistic self-assessment skills.

What Makes a Foreign Language Intelligible? An Examination of the Impact of Musical Ability and Individual Differences on Language Perception and How Intelligible Foreign Languages Appear

Previous research suggests that musical ability is associated with language processing and foreign language pronunciation. Whether musical ability is associated with the ability to generate intelligible unfamiliar utterances has not been investigated. Furthermore, how unfamiliar languages are perceived has rarely been related to musical ability. We tested 80 healthy adults, with a mean age of 34.05 and a combination of 41 women and 39 men. We used batteries of perceptual and generational music and language measures to assess foreign language intelligibility and musical capacity. Regression analysis revealed that five measures explained the variance in the intelligibility of unfamiliar foreign utterances. These were short-term memory capacity, melodic singing ability, speech perception ability, and how melodic and memorable the utterances sounded to the participants. Correlational analyses revealed that musical aptitude measures are related to melodic perception and how memorable unfamiliar utterances sound, whereas singing aptitude is related to the perceived difficulty level of the language material. These findings provide novel evidence of the link between musical and speech abilities. In particular, intelligibility measures are associated with singing aptitude and how melodic languages appear to be. As impressions on how foreign languages are perceived are also related to musical capacities, perceptual language parameters address a new perspective that facilitates the understanding of the link between music and language in general.

Chronology of auditory processing and related co-activation in the orbitofrontal cortex depends on musical expertise

Introduction

The present study aims to explore the extent to which auditory processing is reflected in the prefrontal cortex.

Methods

Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated the chronology of primary and secondary auditory responses and associated co-activation in the orbitofrontal cortex in a large cohort of 162 participants of various ages. The sample consisted of 38 primary school children, 39 adolescents, 43 younger, and 42 middle-aged adults and was further divided into musically experienced participants and non-musicians by quantifying musical training and aptitude parameters.

Results

We observed that the co-activation in the orbitofrontal cortex [Brodmann-Area 10 (BA10)] strongly depended on musical expertise but not on age. In the musically experienced groups, a systematic coincidence of peak latencies of the primary auditory P1 response and the co-activated response in the orbitofrontal cortex was observed in childhood at the onset of musical education. In marked contrast, in all non-musicians, the orbitofrontal co-activation occurred 25-40 ms later when compared with the P1 response. Musical practice and musical aptitude contributed equally to the observed activation and co-activation patterns in the auditory and orbitofrontal cortex, confirming the reciprocal, interrelated influence of nature, and nurture in the musical brain.

Discussion

Based on the observed ageindependent differences in the chronology and lateralization of neurological responses, we suggest that orbitofrontal functions may contribute to musical learning at an early age.

Short-term plasticity of neuro-auditory processing induced by musical active listening training

Although there is strong evidence for the positive effects of musical training on auditory perception, processing, and training-induced neuroplasticity, there is still little knowledge on the auditory and neurophysiological short-term plasticity through listening training. In a sample of 37 adolescents (20 musicians and 17 nonmusicians) that was compared to a control group matched for age, gender, and musical experience, we conducted a 2-week active listening training (AULOS: Active IndividUalized Listening OptimizationS). Using magnetoencephalography and psychoacoustic tests, the short-term plasticity of auditory evoked fields and auditory skills were examined in a pre-post design, adapted to the individual neuro-auditory profiles. We found bilateral, but more pronounced plastic changes in the right auditory cortex. Moreover, we observed synchronization of the auditory evoked P1, N1, and P2 responses and threefold larger amplitudes of the late P2 response, similar to the reported effects of musical long-term training. Auditory skills and thresholds benefited largely from the AULOS training. Remarkably, after training, the mean thresholds improved by 12 dB for bone conduction and by 3-4 dB for air conduction. Thus, our findings indicate a strong positive influence of active listening training on neural auditory processing and perception in adolescence, when the auditory system is still developing.