Reducing Linguistic Information Enhances Singing Proficiency in Occasional Singers

Berkowska, Magdalena; Bella, Simone Dalla

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04774.x

Cited by 28 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…However, 2 singers did not improve; thereby, they were qualified as poor-pitch singers (similar cases of poor singing will be discussed below). We recently replicated these results (Berkowska & Dalla Bella, 2009; Dalla Bella & Berkowska, 2009) in a group of 39 occasional singers tested using different familiar material. In addition, we found that imitating a familiar song at a slow tempo enhanced both pitch accuracy and reduced temporal variability.…”

Section: Normal Singingmentioning

confidence: 53%

Acquired and congenital disorders of sung performance: A review

Berkowska¹,

Bella²

2009

Advances in Cognitive Psychology

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Many believe that the majority of people are unable to carry a tune. Yet, this widespread idea underestimates the singing abilities of the layman. Most occasional singers can sing in tune and in time, provided that they perform at a slow tempo. Here we characterize proficient singing in the general population and identify its neuronal underpinnings by reviewing behavioral and neuroimaging studies. In addition, poor singing resulting from a brain injury or neurogenetic disorder (i.e., tone deafness or congenital amusia) is examined. Different lines of evidence converge in indicating that poor singing is not a monolithic deficit. A variety of poor-singing "phenotypes" are described, with or without concurrent perceptual deficits. In addition, particular attention is paid to the dissociations between specific abilities in poor singers (e.g., production of absolute vs. relative pitch, pitch vs. time accuracy). Such diversity of impairments in poor singers can be traced to different faulty mechanisms within the vocal sensorimotor loop, such as pitch perception and sensorimotor integration.

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Section: Normal Singingmentioning

confidence: 53%

Acquired and congenital disorders of sung performance: A review

Berkowska¹,

Bella²

2009

Advances in Cognitive Psychology

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“…As the opposite dissociationimpaired beat perception with spared synchronization -has not been described so far, it is difficult to conclude whether there are two independent mechanisms involved. However, a functional separation of perception and action is not unusual, and is supported by a double dissociation in pitch processing (for reviews, see Dalla Bella, Berkowska, & Sowiński, 2011;Berkowska & Dalla Bella, 2009;. A similar functional architecture may apply to rhythm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Lost in time” but still moving to the beat

et al. 2017

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Motor synchronization to the beat of an auditory sequence (e.g., a metronome or music) is widespread in humans. However, some individuals show poor synchronization and impoverished beat perception. This condition, termed "beat deafness", has been linked to a perceptual deficit in beat tracking. Here we present single-case evidence (L.A. and L.C.) that poor beat tracking does not have to entail poor synchronization. In a first Experiment, L.A., L.C., and a third case (L.V.) were submitted to the Battery for The Assessment of Auditory Sensorimotor and Timing Abilities (BAASTA), which includes both perceptual and sensorimotor tasks. Compared to a control group, L.A. and L.C. performed poorly on rhythm perception tasks, such as detecting time shifts in a regular sequence, or estimating whether a metronome is aligned to the beat of the music or not. Yet, they could tap to the beat of the same stimuli. L.V. showed impairments in both beat perception and tapping. In a second Experiment, we tested whether L.A., L.C., and L.V.'s perceptual deficits extend to an implicit timing task, in which they had to respond as fast as possible to a different target pitch after a sequence of standard tones. The three beat-deaf participants benefited similarly to controls from a regular temporal pattern in detecting the pitch target. The fact that synchronization to a beat can occur in the presence of poor perception shows that perception and action can dissociate in explicit timing tasks. Beat tracking afforded by implicit timing mechanisms is likely to support spared synchronization to the beat in some beat-deaf participants. This finding suggests that separate pathways may subserve beat perception depending on the explicit/implicit nature of a task in a sample of beat-deaf participants.

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“…However, two participants did not improve, and were thereby qualified as 'poor-pitch singers' (see below for a discussion). The positive effect of reducing tempo on singing proficiency was confirmed more recently using a wider selection of melodies and a larger sample (Berkowska & Dalla Bella, 2009a;Dalla Bella & Berkowska, 2009).…”

Section: Singing Proficiency In the General Populationmentioning

confidence: 59%

Singing and Its Neuronal Substrates: Evidence from the General Population

Bella¹,

Berkowska²

2009

Contemporary Music Review

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This article reviews a range of behavioural and neuroimaging studies with the goal of characterising proficient singing in the general population and identifying its neuronal underpinnings. Evidence is provided to suggest that the majority of individuals can carry a tune, and that a complex neural network engaging motor, auditory and sensorimotor integration areas supports this ability. These mechanisms can be disrupted by a brain insult or neurogenetic disorders leading to inaccurate singing. A variety of poor-singing patterns are described (e.g., with or without concurrent perceptual deficiencies).The study of these poor-singing phenotypes is useful in understanding the complex structure of the song system and its neuronal substrates.

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Reducing Linguistic Information Enhances Singing Proficiency in Occasional Singers

Cited by 28 publications

References 9 publications

Acquired and congenital disorders of sung performance: A review

Acquired and congenital disorders of sung performance: A review

“Lost in time” but still moving to the beat

Singing and Its Neuronal Substrates: Evidence from the General Population

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