Are there critical periods for musical development?

Trainor, Laurel J.

doi:10.1002/dev.20059

Cited by 127 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 110 publications

(119 reference statements)

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“…As in that study, neural specialization through musical training may derive from the richness of musical training. ''Critical periods'' of musical development (51) as well as the development of pitch, timbre, and melody discrimination skills, which are present as early as 6 months of age (52), may also contribute to the degree of adaptive change. It is likely that the multisensory encoding mechanisms develop and are strengthened by a reciprocal relationship between cortical and subcortical processes, as has been suggested to explain correlations between brainstem and cortical deficits (32,53,54).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music

Musacchia¹,

Sams

Skoe³

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

570

520

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Musical training is known to modify cortical organization. Here, we show that such modifications extend to subcortical sensory structures and generalize to processing of speech. Musicians had earlier and larger brainstem responses than nonmusician controls to both speech and music stimuli presented in auditory and audiovisual conditions, evident as early as 10 ms after acoustic onset. Phaselocking to stimulus periodicity, which likely underlies perception of pitch, was enhanced in musicians and strongly correlated with length of musical practice. In addition, viewing videos of speech (lip-reading) and music (instrument being played) enhanced temporal and frequency encoding in the auditory brainstem, particularly in musicians. These findings demonstrate practice-related changes in the early sensory encoding of auditory and audiovisual information.brainstem ͉ plasticity ͉ visual ͉ multisensory language

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music

Musacchia¹,

Sams

Skoe³

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

570

520

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Early events in song learning include the expression of genes that are shared by birds and mammals, which are likely to play a role in language and song learning in humans as well (Haesler et al, 2004;Jarvis & Nottebohm, 1997;Teramitsu, Kudo, London, Geschwind, & White, 2004;Webb & Zhang, 2005). At the behavioural level, song-learning birds go through a ''sensitive period'' early in life, when they must be exposed to normal conspecific song if they are to develop normal singing behaviour (Marler, 1987), paralleling the critical or sensitive periods documented for some aspects of language and music learning in humans (Newport, 1991;Trainor, 2005). Perhaps related, birds with vocal learning go through an immature stage where they produce highly variable song, termed ''subsong'', which develops towards an accurate rendition of their tutorsÕ song during a process of successive experimentation and approximation (Doupe & Kuhl, 1999;Tchernichovski, Mitra, Lints, & Nottebohm, 2001).…”

Section: Parallels Between Birdsong Language and Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective

2006

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Studies of the biology of music (as of language) are highly interdisciplinary and demand the integration of diverse strands of evidence. In this paper, I present a comparative perspective on the biology and evolution of music, stressing the value of comparisons both with human language, and with those animal communication systems traditionally termed ''song''. A comparison of the ''design features'' of music with those of language reveals substantial overlap, along with some important differences. Most of these differences appear to stem from semantic, rather than structural, factors, suggesting a shared formal core of music and language. I next review various animal communication systems that appear related to human music, either by analogy (bird and whale ''song'') or potential homology (great ape bimanual drumming). A crucial comparative distinction is between learned, complex signals (like language, music and birdsong) and unlearned signals (like laughter, ape calls, or bird calls). While human vocalizations clearly build upon an acoustic and emotional foundation shared with other primates and mammals, vocal learning has evolved independently in our species since our divergence with chimpanzees. The convergent evolution of vocal learning in other species offers a powerful window into psychological and neural constraints influencing the evolution of complex signaling systems (including both song and speech), while ape drumming presents a fascinating potential homology with human instrumental music. I next discuss the archeological data relevant to music evolution, concluding on the basis of prehistoric bone flutes that instrumental music is at least 40,000 years old, and perhaps much older. I end with a brief review of adaptive functions proposed for music, concluding that no one selective force (e.g., sexual selection) is adequate to explaining all aspects of human music. I suggest that questions about ARTICLE IN PRESSthe past function of music are unlikely to be answered definitively and are thus a poor choice as a research focus for biomusicology. In contrast, a comparative approach to music promises rich dividends for our future understanding of the biology and evolution of music.

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“…Specifically, the test items those infants heard were identical in bigram (two notes in sequence) frequency to the training in both conditions. Thus, if children were attending to the relative pitch of bigrams only (rather than trigrams), they would find both "legal" and "illegal" test items equally acceptable (Trainor, 2005). Thus, Trainor argues, this does not constitute evidence of poor relative pitch in infants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tipping the scales: Auditory cue weighting changes over development.

Creel¹

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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How does auditory processing change over development? This study assessed preschoolers' and adults' sensitivity to pitch contour, pitch height, and timbre in an association-memory paradigm, with both explicit (overt recognition) and implicit measures (visual fixations to melody-linked objects). In the first 2 experiments, child and adult participants associated each of 2 melodies with a cartoon picture, and recognition was tested. Experiment 1 pitted pitch contour cues against pitch height cues, and Experiment 2 pitted contour cues against timbre cues. Although adults were sensitive to multiple cues, children responded predominantly based on pitch height and timbre, with little sensitivity to pitch contour. In Experiment 3, however, children detected changes to all 3 cues well above chance levels. Results overall suggest that contour differences, although readily perceptible, are less memorable to children than to adults. Gradual perceptual learning over development may increase the memorability of pitch contour.

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Are there critical periods for musical development?

Cited by 127 publications

References 110 publications

Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music

Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music

The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective

Tipping the scales: Auditory cue weighting changes over development.

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