1
|
Rathcke T, Smit E, Zheng Y, Canzi M. Perception of temporal structure in speech is influenced by body movement and individual beat perception ability. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024:10.3758/s13414-024-02893-8. [PMID: 38769276 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02893-8] [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] [Accepted: 04/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
The subjective experience of time flow in speech deviates from the sound acoustics in substantial ways. The present study focuses on the perceptual tendency to regularize time intervals found in speech but not in other types of sounds with a similar temporal structure. We investigate to what extent individual beat perception ability is responsible for perceptual regularization and if the effect can be eliminated through the involvement of body movement during listening. Participants performed a musical beat perception task and compared spoken sentences to their drumbeat-based versions either after passive listening or after listening and moving along with the beat of the sentences. The results show that the interval regularization prevails in listeners with a low beat perception ability performing a passive listening task and is eliminated in an active listening task involving body movement. Body movement also helped to promote a veridical percept of temporal structure in speech at the group level. We suggest that body movement engages an internal timekeeping mechanism, promoting the fidelity of auditory encoding even in sounds of high temporal complexity and irregularity such as natural speech.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tamara Rathcke
- Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, 78464, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
| | - Eline Smit
- Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, 78464, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Street, Penrith, 2751, NSW, Australia
| | - Yue Zheng
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK
- Department of Hearing Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Massimiliano Canzi
- Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, 78464, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Lazzari G, van de Vorst R, van Vugt FT, Lega C. Subtle Patterns of Altered Responsiveness to Delayed Auditory Feedback during Finger Tapping in People Who Stutter. Brain Sci 2024; 14:472. [PMID: 38790451 PMCID: PMC11120293 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14050472] [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: 04/10/2024] [Revised: 05/01/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Differences in sensorimotor integration mechanisms have been observed between people who stutter (PWS) and controls who do not. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) introduces timing discrepancies between perception and action, disrupting sequence production in verbal and non-verbal domains. While DAF consistently enhances speech fluency in PWS, its impact on non-verbal sensorimotor synchronization abilities remains unexplored. A total of 11 PWS and 13 matched controls completed five tasks: (1) unpaced tapping; (2) synchronization-continuation task (SCT) without auditory feedback; (3) SCT with DAF, with instruction either to align the sound in time with the metronome; or (4) to ignore the sound and align their physical tap to the metronome. Additionally, we measured participants' sensitivity to detecting delayed feedback using a (5) delay discrimination task. Results showed that DAF significantly affected performance in controls as a function of delay duration, despite being irrelevant to the task. Conversely, PWS performance remained stable across delays. When auditory feedback was absent, no differences were found between PWS and controls. Moreover, PWS were less able to detect delays in speech and tapping tasks. These findings show subtle differences in non-verbal sensorimotor performance between PWS and controls, specifically when action-perception loops are disrupted by delays, contributing to models of sensorimotor integration in stuttering.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Giorgio Lazzari
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
| | - Robert van de Vorst
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC H3A 1G1, Canada; (R.v.d.V.); (F.T.v.V.)
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 1Y6, Canada
| | - Floris T. van Vugt
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC H3A 1G1, Canada; (R.v.d.V.); (F.T.v.V.)
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montreal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada
| | - Carlotta Lega
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Whitton SA, Jiang F. Sensorimotor synchronization with visual, auditory, and tactile modalities. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2023; 87:2204-2217. [PMID: 36773102 PMCID: PMC10567517 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-023-01801-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
While it is well known that humans are highly responsive to rhythm, the factors that influence our ability to synchronize remain unclear. In the current study, we examined how stimulus modality and rhythmic deviation, along with the synchronizer's level of musicality, impacted sensorimotor synchronization (SMS). Utilizing a finger-tapping task and three sensory modalities (visual, auditory, and tactile), we manipulated rhythmic deviation by varying the temporal position, intensity, and availability of cues across four deviation levels. Additionally, to determine our participants' musical familiarity and aptitude, we administered the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) questionnaire. We found that SMS to external rhythmic stimuli was significantly more precise for auditory and tactile than for visual sequences. Further, we found SMS consistency significantly decreased in all modalities with increased rhythmic deviation, suggesting rhythmic deviation directly relates to SMS difficulty. Moreover, a significant correlation was found between Gold-MSI scores and SMS consistency in the most rhythmically deviant level, such that the higher one's musical general sophistication score, the greater one's SMS ability. This held for all three modalities. Combined, these findings suggest that rhythmic synchronization performance is affected not only by the modality and rhythmic deviation of the stimuli but also by the musical general sophistication of the synchronizer.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Fang Jiang
- Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
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.
Collapse
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
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Wynn CJ, Barrett TS, Borrie SA. Rhythm Perception, Speaking Rate Entrainment, and Conversational Quality: A Mediated Model. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:2187-2203. [PMID: 35617456 PMCID: PMC9567410 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 10/10/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2022] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Acoustic-prosodic entrainment, defined as the tendency for individuals to modify their speech behaviors to more closely align with the behaviors of their conversation partner, plays an important role in successful interaction. From a mechanistic perspective, acoustic-prosodic entrainment is, by its very nature, a rhythmic activity. Accordingly, it is highly plausible that an individual's rhythm perception abilities play a role in their ability to successfully entrain. Here, we examine the impact of rhythm perception in speaking rate entrainment and subsequent conversational quality. METHOD A round-robin paradigm was used to collect 90 dialogues from neurotypical adults. Additional assessments determined participants' rhythm perception abilities, social competence, and partner familiarity (i.e., whether the conversation partners knew each other prior to the interaction. Mediation analysis was used to examine the relationships between rhythm perception scores, speaking rate entrainment (using a measure of static local synchrony), and a measure of conversational success (i.e., conversational quality) based on third-party listener observations. Findings were compared to the same analysis with three additional predictive factors: participant gender, partner familiarity, and social competence. RESULTS Results revealed a relationship between rhythm perception and speaking rate entrainment. In unfamiliar conversation partners, there was a relationship between speaking rate entrainment and conversational quality. The relationships between entrainment and each of the three additional factors (i.e., gender, partner familiarity, and social competence) were nonsignificant. CONCLUSIONS In unfamiliar conversation partners, better rhythm perception abilities were indicative of increased conversational quality mediated by higher levels of speaking rate entrainment. These results support theoretical postulations specifying rhythm perception abilities as a component of acoustic-prosodic entrainment, which, in turn, facilitates conversational success. Knowledge of this relationship contributes to the development of a causal framework for considering a mechanism by which rhythm perception deficits in clinical populations may impact conversational success.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Camille J. Wynn
- Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, Utah State University, Logan, UT
| | | | - Stephanie A. Borrie
- Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, Utah State University, Logan, UT
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Wei Y, Hancock R, Mozeiko J, Large EW. The relationship between entrainment dynamics and reading fluency assessed by sensorimotor perturbation. Exp Brain Res 2022; 240:1775-1790. [PMID: 35507069 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-022-06369-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
A consistent relationship has been found between rhythmic processing and reading skills. Impairment of the ability to entrain movements to an auditory rhythm in clinical populations with language-related deficits, such as children with developmental dyslexia, has been found in both behavioral and neural studies. In this study, we explored the relationship between rhythmic entrainment, behavioral synchronization, reading fluency, and reading comprehension in neurotypical English- and Mandarin-speaking adults. First, we examined entrainment stability by asking participants to coordinate taps with an auditory metronome in which unpredictable perturbations were introduced to disrupt entrainment. Next, we assessed behavioral synchronization by asking participants to coordinate taps with the syllables they produced while reading sentences as naturally as possible (tap to syllable task). Finally, we measured reading fluency and reading comprehension for native English and native Mandarin speakers. Stability of entrainment correlated strongly with tap to syllable task performance and with reading fluency, and both findings generalized across English and Mandarin speakers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yi Wei
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
- Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
- The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences of University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
| | - Roeland Hancock
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences of University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
| | - Jennifer Mozeiko
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
| | - Edward W Large
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences of University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Grossberg S. Toward Understanding the Brain Dynamics of Music: Learning and Conscious Performance of Lyrics and Melodies With Variable Rhythms and Beats. Front Syst Neurosci 2022; 16:766239. [PMID: 35465193 PMCID: PMC9028030 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.766239] [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: 08/28/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A neural network architecture models how humans learn and consciously perform musical lyrics and melodies with variable rhythms and beats, using brain design principles and mechanisms that evolved earlier than human musical capabilities, and that have explained and predicted many kinds of psychological and neurobiological data. One principle is called factorization of order and rhythm: Working memories store sequential information in a rate-invariant and speaker-invariant way to avoid using excessive memory and to support learning of language, spatial, and motor skills. Stored invariant representations can be flexibly performed in a rate-dependent and speaker-dependent way under volitional control. A canonical working memory design stores linguistic, spatial, motoric, and musical sequences, including sequences with repeated words in lyrics, or repeated pitches in songs. Stored sequences of individual word chunks and pitch chunks are categorized through learning into lyrics chunks and pitches chunks. Pitches chunks respond selectively to stored sequences of individual pitch chunks that categorize harmonics of each pitch, thereby supporting tonal music. Bottom-up and top-down learning between working memory and chunking networks dynamically stabilizes the memory of learned music. Songs are learned by associatively linking sequences of lyrics and pitches chunks. Performance begins when list chunks read word chunk and pitch chunk sequences into working memory. Learning and performance of regular rhythms exploits cortical modulation of beats that are generated in the basal ganglia. Arbitrary performance rhythms are learned by adaptive timing circuits in the cerebellum interacting with prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. The same network design that controls walking, running, and finger tapping also generates beats and the urge to move with a beat.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Grossberg
- Center for Adaptive Systems, Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
von Schnehen A, Hobeika L, Huvent-Grelle D, Samson S. Sensorimotor Synchronization in Healthy Aging and Neurocognitive Disorders. Front Psychol 2022; 13:838511. [PMID: 35369160 PMCID: PMC8970308 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.838511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), the coordination of physical actions in time with a rhythmic sequence, is a skill that is necessary not only for keeping the beat when making music, but in a wide variety of interpersonal contexts. Being able to attend to temporal regularities in the environment is a prerequisite for event prediction, which lies at the heart of many cognitive and social operations. It is therefore of value to assess and potentially stimulate SMS abilities, particularly in aging and neurocognitive disorders (NCDs), to understand intra-individual communication in the later stages of life, and to devise effective music-based interventions. While a bulk of research exists about SMS and movement-based interventions in Parkinson's disease, a lot less is known about other types of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, or frontotemporal dementia. In this review, we outline the brain and cognitive mechanisms involved in SMS with auditory stimuli, and how they might be subject to change in healthy and pathological aging. Globally, SMS with isochronous sounds is a relatively well-preserved skill in old adulthood and in patients with NCDs. At the same time, natural tapping speed decreases with age. Furthermore, especially when synchronizing to sequences at slow tempi, regularity and precision might be lower in older adults, and even more so in people with NCDs, presumably due to the fact that this process relies on attention and working memory resources that depend on the prefrontal cortex and parietal areas. Finally, we point out that the effect of the severity and etiology of NCDs on sensorimotor abilities is still unclear: More research is needed with moderate and severe NCD, comparing different etiologies, and using complex auditory signals, such as music.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andres von Schnehen
- Université de Lille, ULR 4072 - PSITEC - Psychologie: Interactions, Temps, Emotions, Cognition, Lille, France
| | - Lise Hobeika
- Université de Lille, ULR 4072 - PSITEC - Psychologie: Interactions, Temps, Emotions, Cognition, Lille, France.,Sorbonne Université, Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Inserm, CNRS, APHP, Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière, Paris, France
| | | | - Séverine Samson
- Université de Lille, ULR 4072 - PSITEC - Psychologie: Interactions, Temps, Emotions, Cognition, Lille, France.,Sorbonne Université, Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Inserm, CNRS, APHP, Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière, Paris, France.,Epilepsy Unit, AP-HP, GHU Pitié-Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, Paris, France
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Nayak S, Gustavson DE, Wang Y, Below JE, Gordon RL, Magne CL. Test of Prosody via Syllable Emphasis ("TOPsy"): Psychometric Validation of a Brief Scalable Test of Lexical Stress Perception. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:765945. [PMID: 35221896 PMCID: PMC8864136 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.765945] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 01/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Prosody perception is fundamental to spoken language communication as it supports comprehension, pragmatics, morphosyntactic parsing of speech streams, and phonological awareness. A particular aspect of prosody: perceptual sensitivity to speech rhythm patterns in words (i.e., lexical stress sensitivity), is also a robust predictor of reading skills, though it has received much less attention than phonological awareness in the literature. Given the importance of prosody and reading in educational outcomes, reliable and valid tools are needed to conduct large-scale health and genetic investigations of individual differences in prosody, as groundwork for investigating the biological underpinnings of the relationship between prosody and reading. Motivated by this need, we present the Test of Prosody via Syllable Emphasis ("TOPsy") and highlight its merits as a phenotyping tool to measure lexical stress sensitivity in as little as 10 min, in scalable internet-based cohorts. In this 28-item speech rhythm perception test [modeled after the stress identification test from Wade-Woolley (2016)], participants listen to multi-syllabic spoken words and are asked to identify lexical stress patterns. Psychometric analyses in a large internet-based sample shows excellent reliability, and predictive validity for self-reported difficulties with speech-language, reading, and musical beat synchronization. Further, items loaded onto two distinct factors corresponding to initially stressed vs. non-initially stressed words. These results are consistent with previous reports that speech rhythm perception abilities correlate with musical rhythm sensitivity and speech-language/reading skills, and are implicated in reading disorders (e.g., dyslexia). We conclude that TOPsy can serve as a useful tool for studying prosodic perception at large scales in a variety of different settings, and importantly can act as a validated brief phenotype for future investigations of the genetic architecture of prosodic perception, and its relationship to educational outcomes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Srishti Nayak
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
- Department of Psychology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, United States
| | - Daniel E. Gustavson
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Youjia Wang
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Jennifer E. Below
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Reyna L. Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Cyrille L. Magne
- Department of Psychology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, United States
- College of Education Literacy Studies Ph.D. Program, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, United States
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Aichert I, Lehner K, Falk S, Späth M, Franke M, Ziegler W. In Time with the Beat: Entrainment in Patients with Phonological Impairment, Apraxia of Speech, and Parkinson's Disease. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11111524. [PMID: 34827523 PMCID: PMC8615970 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11111524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Revised: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 11/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study, we investigated if individuals with neurogenic speech sound impairments of three types, Parkinson’s dysarthria, apraxia of speech, and aphasic phonological impairment, accommodate their speech to the natural speech rhythm of an auditory model, and if so, whether the effect is more significant after hearing metrically regular sentences as compared to those with an irregular pattern. This question builds on theories of rhythmic entrainment, assuming that sensorimotor predictions of upcoming events allow humans to synchronize their actions with an external rhythm. To investigate entrainment effects, we conducted a sentence completion task relating participants’ response latencies to the spoken rhythm of the prime heard immediately before. A further research question was if the perceived rhythm interacts with the rhythm of the participants’ own productions, i.e., the trochaic or iambic stress pattern of disyllabic target words. For a control group of healthy speakers, our study revealed evidence for entrainment when trochaic target words were preceded by regularly stressed prime sentences. Persons with Parkinson’s dysarthria showed a pattern similar to that of the healthy individuals. For the patient groups with apraxia of speech and with phonological impairment, considerably longer response latencies with differing patterns were observed. Trochaic target words were initiated with significantly shorter latencies, whereas the metrical regularity of prime sentences had no consistent impact on response latencies and did not interact with the stress pattern of the target words to be produced. The absence of an entrainment in these patients may be explained by the more severe difficulties in initiating speech at all. We discuss the results in terms of clinical implications for diagnostics and therapy in neurogenic speech disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ingrid Aichert
- Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80799 Munich, Germany; (K.L.); (M.F.); (W.Z.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Katharina Lehner
- Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80799 Munich, Germany; (K.L.); (M.F.); (W.Z.)
| | - Simone Falk
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Département de Linguistique et de Traduction, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada;
| | - Mona Späth
- Neolexon, Limedix GmbH, 80538 Munich, Germany;
| | - Mona Franke
- Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80799 Munich, Germany; (K.L.); (M.F.); (W.Z.)
| | - Wolfram Ziegler
- Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80799 Munich, Germany; (K.L.); (M.F.); (W.Z.)
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Rathcke T, Lin CY. Towards a Comprehensive Account of Rhythm Processing Issues in Developmental Dyslexia. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11101303. [PMID: 34679368 PMCID: PMC8533826 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11101303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Revised: 09/17/2021] [Accepted: 09/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia is typically defined as a difficulty with an individual's command of written language, arising from deficits in phonological awareness. However, motor entrainment difficulties in non-linguistic synchronization and time-keeping tasks have also been reported. Such findings gave rise to proposals of an underlying rhythm processing deficit in dyslexia, even though to date, evidence for impaired motor entrainment with the rhythm of natural speech is rather scarce, and the role of speech rhythm in phonological awareness is unclear. The present study aimed to fill these gaps. Dyslexic adults and age-matched control participants with variable levels of previous music training completed a series of experimental tasks assessing phoneme processing, rhythm perception, and motor entrainment abilities. In a rhythm entrainment task, participants tapped along to the perceived beat of natural spoken sentences. In a phoneme processing task, participants monitored for sonorant and obstruent phonemes embedded in nonsense strings. Individual sensorimotor skills were assessed using a number of screening tests. The results lacked evidence for a motor impairment or a general motor entrainment difficulty in dyslexia, at least among adult participants of the study. Instead, the results showed that the participants' performance in the phonemic task was predictive of their performance in the rhythmic task, but not vice versa, suggesting that atypical rhythm processing in dyslexia may be the consequence, but not the cause, of dyslexic difficulties with phoneme-level encoding. No evidence for a deficit in the entrainment to the syllable rate in dyslexic adults was found. Rather, metrically weak syllables were significantly less often at the center of rhythmic attention in dyslexic adults as compared to neurotypical controls, with an increased tendency in musically trained participants. This finding could not be explained by an auditory deficit in the processing of acoustic-prosodic cues to the rhythm structure, but it is likely to be related to the well-documented auditory short-term memory issue in dyslexia.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tamara Rathcke
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, Germany
- Modern Languages and Linguistics, School of Cultures and Languages, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK;
- Correspondence:
| | - Chia-Yuan Lin
- Modern Languages and Linguistics, School of Cultures and Languages, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK;
- Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Bonacina S, Huang S, White-Schwoch T, Krizman J, Nicol T, Kraus N. Rhythm, reading, and sound processing in the brain in preschool children. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2021; 6:20. [PMID: 34188057 PMCID: PMC8242059 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-021-00097-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2020] [Accepted: 05/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
A child's success in school relies on their ability to quickly grasp language and reading skills, the foundations of which are acquired even before entering a formal classroom setting. Previous studies in preschoolers have begun to establish relationships linking beat synchronization, preliteracy skills, and auditory processing. Beat synchronization involves the integration of sensorimotor systems with auditory and cognitive circuits and, therefore calls on many of the same neural networks as language. Using a drumming task, we analyzed the relationship between children's ability to maintain an isochronous beat with preliteracy skills and frequency following responses (FFRs) in over 150 preschoolers. We show that preschoolers who performed well on the beat synchronization task outscored their peers on all preliteracy measures and had more robust FFRs. Furthermore, the good synchronizers experienced less degradation of certain FFR measures when listening in noise. Together, our results are consistent with the view that rhythm, preliteracy, and auditory processing are interconnected during early childhood.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Bonacina
- Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Stephanie Huang
- Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Travis White-Schwoch
- Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Jennifer Krizman
- Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Trent Nicol
- Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Nina Kraus
- Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
- Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Sammler D, Elmer S. Advances in the Neurocognition of Music and Language. Brain Sci 2020; 10:brainsci10080509. [PMID: 32748810 PMCID: PMC7464495 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10080509] [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: 07/27/2020] [Accepted: 07/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Neurocomparative music and language research has seen major advances over the past two decades. The goal of this Special Issue “Advances in the Neurocognition of Music and Language” was to showcase the multiple neural analogies between musical and linguistic information processing, their entwined organization in human perception and cognition and to infer the applicability of the combined knowledge in pedagogy and therapy. Here, we summarize the main insights provided by the contributions and integrate them into current frameworks of rhythm processing, neuronal entrainment, predictive coding and cognitive control.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Sammler
- Otto Hahn Group Neural Bases of Intonation in Speech and Music, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Correspondence: (D.S.); (S.E.)
| | - Stefan Elmer
- Auditory Research Group Zurich (ARGZ), Division Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Zurich, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland
- Correspondence: (D.S.); (S.E.)
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Kliger Amrani A, Zion Golumbic E. Spontaneous and stimulus-driven rhythmic behaviors in ADHD adults and controls. Neuropsychologia 2020; 146:107544. [PMID: 32598965 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2019] [Revised: 05/27/2020] [Accepted: 06/21/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Many aspects of human behavior are inherently rhythmic, requiring production of rhythmic motor actions as well as synchronizing to rhythms in the environment. It is well-established that individuals with ADHD exhibit deficits in temporal estimation and timing functions, which may impact their ability to accurately produce and interact with rhythmic stimuli. In the current study we seek to understand the specific aspects of rhythmic behavior that are implicated in ADHD. We specifically ask whether they are attributed to imprecision in the internal generation of rhythms or to reduced acuity in rhythm perception. We also test key predictions of the Preferred Period Hypothesis, which suggests that both perceptual and motor rhythmic behaviors are biased towards a specific personal 'default' tempo. To this end, we tested several aspects of rhythmic behavior and the correspondence between them, including spontaneous motor tempo (SMT), preferred auditory perceptual tempo (PPT) and synchronization-continuations tapping in a broad range of rhythms, from sub-second to supra-second intervals. Moreover, we evaluate the intra-subject consistency of rhythmic preferences, as a means for testing the reality and reliability of personal 'default-rhythms'. We used a modified operational definition for assessing SMT and PPT, instructing participants to tap or calibrate the rhythms most comfortable for them to count along with, to avoid subjective interpretations of the task. Our results shed new light on the specific aspect of rhythmic deficits implicated in ADHD adults. We find that individuals with ADHD are primarily challenged in producing and maintaining isochronous self-generated motor rhythms, during both spontaneous and memory-paced tapping. However, they nonetheless exhibit good flexibility for synchronizing to a broad range of external rhythms, suggesting that auditory-motor entrainment for simple rhythms is preserved in ADHD, and that the presence of an external pacer allows overcoming their inherent difficulty in self-generating isochronous motor rhythms. In addition, both groups showed optimal memory-paced tapping for rhythms near their 'counting-based' SMT and PPT, which were slightly faster in the ADHD group. This is in line with the predictions of the Preferred Period Hypothesis, indicating that at least for this well-defined rhythmic behavior (i.e., counting), individuals tend to prefer similar time-scales in both motor production and perceptual evaluation.
Collapse
|
15
|
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.
Collapse
|