Tone Language Speakers and Musicians Share Enhanced Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities for Musical Pitch: Evidence for Bidirectionality between the Domains of Language and Music

Abstract

Psychophysiological evidence suggests that music and language are intimately coupled such that experience/training in one domain can influence processing required in the other domain. While the influence of music on language processing is now well-documented, evidence of language-to-music effects have yet to be firmly established. Here, using a cross-sectional design, we compared the performance of musicians to that of tone-language (Cantonese) speakers on tasks of auditory pitch acuity, music perception, and general cognitive ability (e.g., fluid intelligence, working memory). While musicians demonstrated superior performance on all auditory measures, comparable perceptual enhancements were observed for Cantonese participants, relative to English-speaking nonmusicians. These results provide evidence that tone-language background is associated with higher auditory perceptual performance for music listening. Musicians and Cantonese speakers also showed superior working memory capacity relative to nonmusician controls, suggesting that in addition to basic perceptual enhancements, tone-language background and music training might also be associated with enhanced general cognitive abilities. Our findings support the notion that tone language speakers and musically trained individuals have higher performance than English-speaking listeners for the perceptual-cognitive processing necessary for basic auditory as well as complex music perception. These results illustrate bidirectional influences between the domains of music and language.

Cross-domain correlation in pitch perception, the influence of native language

“…In other words, the more difficult the musical pitch processing is, the more evident the advantage of tone language listeners possibly is. Our findings argue for a benefit of musical pitch processing as the result of growing up with a tonal native language, which is consistent with previous findings (Alexander et al, 2008;Bidelman et al, 2013;Pfordresher & Brown, 2009;Stevens et al, 2004;Wong et al, 2012;). Sensitivity to the pitch differences exhibited in the lexical tones is a prerequisite for acquiring them.…”

“…Our findings of improved accuracy in musical pitch processing among tone language listeners are consistent with previous studies (Alexander et al, 2008;Bidelman et al, 2013;Pfordresher & Brown, 2009;Stevens et al, 2004;Wong et al, 2012). The enhanced music perception is likely to be the result of growing up with a native tone language.…”

“…Establishing native phonology occurs early in life when the brain is still highly malleable. Learning the contrastive function of pitch in one's native language may bring a "bonus" to other cognitive abilities (Bidelman et al, 2013;Wong et al, 2012), and the benefit brought by learning early in life may well stay until adulthood. Somewhat unexpectedly, we did not observe a better performance on lexical tone tasks among the Chinese listeners.…”

“…With regard to the enhancement in lexical tone perception brought about by music aptitude, it has been found that, compared to non-tone language speakers without music training, non-tone language musicians are better at detecting lexical tonal variations (Alexander, Wong, & Bradlow, 2005;Delogu, Lampis, & Belardinelli, 2006;Marie, Delogu, Lampis, Belardinelli, & Besson, 2011), and learning to pair pitch patterns to word meaning (which is similar to learning lexical tones) (Wong & Perrachione, 2007). Speaking a tone language has also been found to be beneficial for music perception (Alexander, Bradlow, Ashley, & Wong, 2008;Bidelman, Hutka, & Moreno, 2013;Jiang, Hamm, Lim, Kirk, & Yang, 2010;Pfordresher & Brown, 2009;Stevens, Keller, & Tyler, 2004;Tillmann et al, 2011;Wong et al, 2012). In sum, earlier studies on pitch processing in language and music show mixed results, suggesting autonomy as well as interdependencies between the two domains.…”

Perfect pitch reconsidered

“…19,20 Moreover, recent studies have shown that Cantonese speakers outperform their English-speaking non-musician counterparts on various measures of pitch and music perception. 21 Studies have demonstrated signifi cantly higher prevalence of AP among Asian students than their white counterparts, despite no difference in frequency of early music exposure. 7 Asian students, however, were signifi cantly more likely to have received 'fi xed-do' training than white students.…”