Speech and music shape the listening brain: evidence for shared domain-general mechanisms

Abstract

Are there bi-directional influences between speech perception and music perception? An answer to this question is essential for understanding the extent to which the speech and music that we hear are processed by domain-general auditory processes and/or by distinct neural auditory mechanisms. This review summarizes a large body of behavioral and neuroscientific findings which suggest that the musical experience of trained musicians does modulate speech processing, and a sparser set of data, largely on pitch processing, which suggest in addition that linguistic experience, in particular learning a tone language, modulates music processing. Although research has focused mostly on music on speech effects, we argue that both directions of influence need to be studied, and conclude that the picture which thus emerges is one of mutual interaction across domains. In particular, it is not simply that experience with spoken language has some effects on music perception, and vice versa, but that because of shared domain-general subcortical and cortical networks, experiences in both domains influence behavior in both domains.

The Amount of Language Exposure Determines Nonlinguistic Tone Grouping Biases in Infants From a Bilingual Environment

“…The above‐described findings suggest an interaction between suprasegmental regularities in native speech (e.g., phrasal prosody) and basic sound processing (e.g., tone grouping). This is in line with the shared auditory skills account of speech and general auditory processing (for a review, see Asaridou & McQueen, ; Kraus & Banai, ). Specifically, the findings suggest that exposure to acoustic/rhythmic regularities in native speech shapes the primary sensory areas in a way that it is adjusted to the higher‐level aspects specific to the attended features (e.g., prosody and/or phrasal structure), supporting the idea that top‐down influences may guide plasticity in primary sensory areas, such as the auditory cortex (Kraus & Banai, ; Ahissar & Hochstein, ); in line with the theory of a bi‐directional relationship between language and basic auditory processing in monolingual listeners (e.g., Kraus & Banai, ).…”

“…In summary, considering the shared auditory skills account of speech and general auditory processing (e.g., Asaridou & McQueen, ; Kraus & Banai, ), results obtained on adults’ nonlinguistic tone grouping thus far suggest that nonlinguistic rhythm preferences might facilitate speech perception at the level of syntactic phrase processing in the native or dominant language (Iversen et al., 2010; Molnar et al., ). In other words, listeners are adjusted at the level of basic sound processing to seek out patterns in either linguistic or nonlinguistic auditory stimuli that is relevant for parsing their native input into syntactically meaningful units (e.g., phrases).…”

The Potential Role of Music in Second Language Learning: A Review Article

“…Previous review articles have concentrated on the effects of musical experience on auditory and speech processing skills (Besson, Chobert, & Marie, 2011;Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010; or on the general link between music and language (Asaridou & McQueen, 2013;Slevc, 2012). One recent review did examine the music -L1 and L2 relationship with an emphasis on brain processes .…”

Foreign language learning in French speakers is associated with rhythm perception, but not with melody perception.

“…This asymme try could also be a result of current Western norms, in which music has become a formalized, spectatorial activity (Mithen, 2006, p. 16): Individuals vary more in their experience creating music than speaking a language; therefore, effects of language experience on music perception are more difficult to quantify than the inverse (see also Asaridou & McQueen, 2013). Here, we ask whether and how variability in language experience can be used as a predictor of musical abilities.…”