Musical Expertise Modulates Early Processing of Syntactic Violations in Language

Abstract

Syntactic violations in speech and music have been shown to elicit an anterior negativity (AN) as early as 100 ms after violation onset and a posterior positivity that peaks at roughly 600 ms (P600/LPC). The language AN is typically reported as left-lateralized (LAN), whereas the music AN is typically reported as right-lateralized (RAN). However, several lines of evidence suggest syntactic processing of language and music rely on overlapping neural systems. The current study tested the hypothesis that syntactic processing of speech and music share neural resources by examining whether musical proficiency modulates ERP indices of linguistic syntactic processing. ERPs were measured in response to syntactic violations in sentences and chord progressions in musicians and non-musicians. Violations in speech were insertion errors in normal and semantically impoverished English sentences. Violations in music were out-of-key chord substitutions from distantly and closely related keys. Phrase-structure violations elicited an AN and P600 in both groups. Harmonic violations elicited an LPC in both groups, blatant harmonic violations also elicited a RAN in musicians only. Cross-domain effects of musical proficiency were similar to previously reported within-domain effects of linguistic proficiency on the distribution of the language AN; syntactic violations in normal English sentences elicited a LAN in musicians and a bilateral AN in non-musicians. The late positivities elicited by violations differed in latency and distribution between domains. These results suggest that initial processing of syntactic violations in language and music relies on shared neural resources in the general population, and that musical expertise results in more specialized cortical organization of syntactic processing in both domains.

The effects of supervised learning on event-related potential correlates of music-syntactic processing

“…It seems likely that the structural reanalysis of less regular events was facilitated by the repeated presentations of these events, thus leading to the LPC decline. This is consistent with studies showing that the amplitude of the LPC is sensitive to the difficulty of integration and the degree of unexpectedness (Fitzroy and Sanders, 2013). Interestingly, this decline was observed even in non-musicians, i.e.…”

Time course of the influence of musical expertise on the processing of vocal and musical sounds

“…Other studies also reported late ERP differences between musicians and non-musicians in oddball paradigms in which participants detected music or speech pitch violation (Besson and Faita, 1995;Granot and Donchin, 2002;Fitzroy and Sanders, 2012;Habibi et al, 2013). Interestingly, previous studies also suggested that the amplitude of the late components can be reduced (more negative) when fewer resources are needed (e.g., Kaan et al, 2000).…”

Language and thought are not the same thing: evidence from neuroimaging and neurological patients

“…For example, some early studies used event-related potentials (ERPs) and showed that structural violations in music elicit components that resemble those elicited by syntactic violations in language. These include the P600 [151][152][153] (and see Refs. 154 and 155 for original reports of the P600 response to syntactic violations in language) and the early anterior negativity, present more strongly in the right hemisphere (early right anterior negativity (eRAN); 152,156-158 see Refs.…”