Cross-domain Effects of Music and Language Experience on the Representation of Pitch in the Human Auditory Brainstem

Bidelman, Gavin M.; Gandour, Jackson T.; Krishnan, Ananthanarayan

doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21362

Cited by 311 publications

(327 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Previous studies differed in the cut-off criterion used to define musicianship in young adults. The inclusion criteria for musicians range from 6 to 10 years of musical training (e.g., Bidelman et al, 2011;Strait et al, 2010;Wayland et al, 2010). We took the lower end and defined "musicians" as amateur instrumentalists or vocalists with at least 6 years of continuous formally instructed musical training throughout their lifetime (Wayland et al, 2010;Chan et al, 1998).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of musical training and tone language experience on talker identification

Xie

Myers

2015

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Listeners can use pitch changes in speech to identify talkers. Individuals exhibit large variability in sensitivity to pitch and in accuracy perceiving talker identity. In particular, people who have musical training or long-term tone language use are found to have enhanced pitch perception. In the present study, the influence of pitch experience on talker identification was investigated as listeners identified talkers in native language as well as non-native languages. Experiment 1 was designed to explore the influence of pitch experience on talker identification in two groups of individuals with potential advantages for pitch processing: musicians and tone language speakers. Experiment 2 further investigated individual differences in pitch processing and the contribution to talker identification by testing a mediation model. Cumulatively, the results suggested that (a) musical training confers an advantage for talker identification, supporting a shared resources hypothesis regarding music and language and (b) linguistic use of lexical tones also increases accuracy in hearing talker identity. Importantly, these two types of hearing experience enhance talker identification by sharpening pitch perception skills in a domain-general manner.

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Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of musical training and tone language experience on talker identification

Xie

Myers

2015

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…The results of our study complement a growing body of research indicating that long-term experience in the discrimination and identification of pitch-evoking stimuli, obtained through the acquisition of a tone language or musical practice, modifies auditory processing at the level of the brainstem (see Tzounopoulos and Kraus 2009; Krishnan and Gandour 2009 for reviews). These studies have shown that speakers of tone languages (Krishnan et al 2005(Krishnan et al , 2010 and musicians (Wong et al 2007;Bidelman et al 2009) have enhanced subcortical phase locking to the envelope of periodic sounds in comparison to English speakers without musical experience. In speakers of a tone language, these effects are present for both speech-like and non-speech stimuli, and are greater for tonal segments with highly accelerated F0 contours (Xu et al 2006;Swaminathan et al 2008;Krishnan et al 2009b), which are characteristic of tone languages (Eady 1982).…”

Section: Subcortical Plasticity In the Auditory Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Musicians (Wong et al 2007;Bidelman et al 2009) and speakers of a tone language (Krishnan et al 2005(Krishnan et al , 2009aSwaminathan et al 2008) show more robust subcortical "phase locking" in response to pitchevoking sounds compared to English speakers without musical experience. This has been demonstrated using scalp recordings of the frequency following response (FFR), an evoked potential which reflects neural phase locking of brainstem nuclei (inferior colliculus and lateral lemniscus, Smith et al 1975;Gardi et al 1979) to the envelope of a sound.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subcortical Plasticity Following Perceptual Learning in a Pitch Discrimination Task

Carcagno

Plack

2010

JARO

155

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Practice can lead to dramatic improvements in the discrimination of auditory stimuli. In this study, we investigated changes of the frequency-following response (FFR), a subcortical component of the auditory evoked potentials, after a period of pitch discrimination training. Twenty-seven adult listeners were trained for 10 h on a pitch discrimination task using one of three different complex tone stimuli. One had a static pitch contour, one had a rising pitch contour, and one had a falling pitch contour. Behavioral measures of pitch discrimination and FFRs for all the stimuli were measured before and after the training phase for these participants, as well as for an untrained control group (n=12). Trained participants showed significant improvements in pitch discrimination compared to the control group for all three trained stimuli. These improvements were partly specific for stimuli with the same pitch modulation (dynamic vs. static) and with the same pitch trajectory (rising vs. falling) as the trained stimulus. Also, the robustness of FFR neural phase locking to the sound envelope increased significantly more in trained participants compared to the control group for the static and rising contour, but not for the falling contour. Changes in FFR strength were partly specific for stimuli with the same pitch modulation (dynamic vs. static) of the trained stimulus. Changes in FFR strength, however, were not specific for stimuli with the same pitch trajectory (rising vs. falling) as the trained stimulus. These findings indicate that even relatively low-level processes in the mature auditory system are subject to experience-related change.

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“…differentiate speech sounds to a greater extent (65)(66)(67), track stimulus pitch more accurately (68,69), and are more consistent across trials (59,70). In adolescence, music training leads to faster responses to speech in noise (71), but the extent to which adolescent music training can confer other aspects of the musician signature remains unknown.…”

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confidence: 99%

Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development

Tierney

Krizman

Kraus

2015

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

151

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Fundamental changes in brain structure and function during adolescence are well-characterized, but the extent to which experience modulates adolescent neurodevelopment is not. Musical experience provides an ideal case for examining this question because the influence of music training begun early in life is wellknown. We investigated the effects of in-school music training, previously shown to enhance auditory skills, versus another inschool training program that did not focus on development of auditory skills (active control). We tested adolescents on neural responses to sound and language skills before they entered high school (pretraining) and again 3 y later. Here, we show that inschool music training begun in high school prolongs the stability of subcortical sound processing and accelerates maturation of cortical auditory responses. Although phonological processing improved in both the music training and active control groups, the enhancement was greater in adolescents who underwent music training. Thus, music training initiated as late as adolescence can enhance neural processing of sound and confer benefits for language skills. These results establish the potential for experience-driven brain plasticity during adolescence and demonstrate that in-school programs can engender these changes. music | training | auditory B y age six, the brain has reached 90% of its adult size (1).However, the years between childhood and young adulthood are marked by a host of subtler neural developments. Myelination and synaptic pruning (2-5) lead to a decrease in gray matter and an increase in white matter (6-13). Resting-state oscillations decline (14-16), and passive evoked responses to sound change in complex ways. Cortically, the P1, which is a positive deflection at around 50 ms generated within lateral Heschl's gyrus (17), declines whereas the N1, a negative deflection at around 100 ms generated within primary and secondary auditory cortices (18)(19)(20), increases (21-23). Subcortically, the trial-by-trial consistency of the response declines (24,25). An open question is how experience interacts with this developmental plasticity during adolescence. Is the transition from the plasticity of childhood to the stability of adulthood malleable by experience? And if so, what types of enrichment have the greatest impact on the development of the neural mechanisms contributing to auditory and language skills?Music training is an enrichment program commonly available to high school students, and its neural and behavioral consequences are well-understood (for a review, see ref. 26). Studies comparing nonmusicians with musicians who began training early in life have revealed a "signature" set of enhancements associated with musical experience (27,28). Relative to nonmusician peers, musicians tend to show enhanced speech-innoise perception (29-34), verbal memory (30-33, 35-38), phonological skills (39-45), and reading (46-50), although not without exception (51, 52). Music training has also been linked to enhancements in the enco...

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Cross-domain Effects of Music and Language Experience on the Representation of Pitch in the Human Auditory Brainstem

Cited by 311 publications

References 49 publications

The impact of musical training and tone language experience on talker identification

The impact of musical training and tone language experience on talker identification

Subcortical Plasticity Following Perceptual Learning in a Pitch Discrimination Task

Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development

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