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Liu J, Hilton CB, Bergelson E, Mehr SA. Language experience predicts music processing in a half-million speakers of fifty-four languages. Curr Biol 2023; 33:1916-1925.e4. [PMID: 37105166 PMCID: PMC10306420 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2021] [Revised: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023]
Abstract
Tonal languages differ from other languages in their use of pitch (tones) to distinguish words. Lifelong experience speaking and hearing tonal languages has been argued to shape auditory processing in ways that generalize beyond the perception of linguistic pitch to the perception of pitch in other domains like music. We conducted a meta-analysis of prior studies testing this idea, finding moderate evidence supporting it. But prior studies were limited by mostly small sample sizes representing a small number of languages and countries, making it challenging to disentangle the effects of linguistic experience from variability in music training, cultural differences, and other potential confounds. To address these issues, we used web-based citizen science to assess music perception skill on a global scale in 34,034 native speakers of 19 tonal languages (e.g., Mandarin, Yoruba). We compared their performance to 459,066 native speakers of other languages, including 6 pitch-accented (e.g., Japanese) and 29 non-tonal languages (e.g., Hungarian). Whether or not participants had taken music lessons, native speakers of all 19 tonal languages had an improved ability to discriminate musical melodies on average, relative to speakers of non-tonal languages. But this improvement came with a trade-off: tonal language speakers were also worse at processing the musical beat. The results, which held across native speakers of many diverse languages and were robust to geographic and demographic variation, demonstrate that linguistic experience shapes music perception, with implications for relations between music, language, and culture in the human mind.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingxuan Liu
- Columbia Business School, Columbia University, 665 W 130th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA; Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, 417 Chapel Drive, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
| | - Courtney B Hilton
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, 300 George Street #900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; School of Psychology, University of Auckland, 23 Symonds Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
| | - Elika Bergelson
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, 417 Chapel Drive, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Samuel A Mehr
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, 300 George Street #900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; School of Psychology, University of Auckland, 23 Symonds Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
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Nitin R, Gustavson DE, Aaron AS, Boorom OA, Bush CT, Wiens N, Vaughan C, Persici V, Blain SD, Soman U, Hambrick DZ, Camarata SM, McAuley JD, Gordon RL. Exploring individual differences in musical rhythm and grammar skills in school-aged children with typically developing language. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2201. [PMID: 36750727 PMCID: PMC9905575 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-21902-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
A growing number of studies have shown a connection between rhythmic processing and language skill. It has been proposed that domain-general rhythm abilities might help children to tap into the rhythm of speech (prosody), cueing them to prosodic markers of grammatical (syntactic) information during language acquisition, thus underlying the observed correlations between rhythm and language. Working memory processes common to task demands for musical rhythm discrimination and spoken language paradigms are another possible source of individual variance observed in musical rhythm and language abilities. To investigate the nature of the relationship between musical rhythm and expressive grammar skills, we adopted an individual differences approach in N = 132 elementary school-aged children ages 5-7, with typical language development, and investigated prosodic perception and working memory skills as possible mediators. Aligning with the literature, musical rhythm was correlated with expressive grammar performance (r = 0.41, p < 0.001). Moreover, musical rhythm predicted mastery of complex syntax items (r = 0.26, p = 0.003), suggesting a privileged role of hierarchical processing shared between musical rhythm processing and children's acquisition of complex syntactic structures. These relationships between rhythm and grammatical skills were not mediated by prosodic perception, working memory, or non-verbal IQ; instead, we uncovered a robust direct effect of musical rhythm perception on grammatical task performance. Future work should focus on possible biological endophenotypes and genetic influences underlying this relationship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachana Nitin
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
| | - Daniel E Gustavson
- Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Institute for Behavioural Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Allison S Aaron
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Olivia A Boorom
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
| | - Catherine T Bush
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Natalie Wiens
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Ascension Via Christi St Teresa Hospital, Wichita, KS, USA
| | - Chloe Vaughan
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Valentina Persici
- Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Scott D Blain
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Uma Soman
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Communication Disorders and Deaf Education, Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - David Z Hambrick
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Stephen M Camarata
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - J Devin McAuley
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Reyna L Gordon
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
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Wang C, Flemming K, Cortiana G, Putkinen V, Lammert J, Rafat Y, Tao S, Joanisse MF. Chinese-English bilinguals are more sensitive to environmental sound perception than Spanish-English bilinguals through top-down cognitive mechanism. Biol Psychol 2022; 175:108449. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2022] [Revised: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Christiner M, Renner J, Groß C, Seither-Preisler A, Benner J, Schneider P. Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin. Front Psychol 2022; 13:895063. [PMID: 35783693 PMCID: PMC9245042 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Learning Mandarin has become increasingly important in the Western world but is rather difficult to be learnt by speakers of non-tone languages. Since tone language learning requires very precise tonal ability, we set out to test whether musical skills, musical status, singing ability, singing behavior during childhood, basic auditory skills, and short-term memory ability contribute to individual differences in Mandarin performance. Therefore, we developed Mandarin tone discrimination and pronunciation tasks to assess individual differences in adult participants’ (N = 109) tone language ability. Results revealed that short-term memory capacity, singing ability, pitch perception preferences, and tone frequency (high vs. low tones) were the most important predictors, which explained individual differences in the Mandarin performances of our participants. Therefore, it can be concluded that training of basic auditory skills, musical training including singing should be integrated in the educational setting for speakers of non-tone languages who learn tone languages such as Mandarin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Christiner
- Center for Systematic Musicology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, Latvia
- *Correspondence: Markus Christiner,
| | - Julia Renner
- Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | | | | | - Jan Benner
- Department of Neuroradiology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany
- Department of Neurology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Peter Schneider
- Center for Systematic Musicology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, Latvia
- Department of Neuroradiology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany
- Department of Neurology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany
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Ma W, Zhou P. Three-year-old tone language learners are tolerant of tone mispronunciations spoken with familiar and novel tones. COGENT PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/23311908.2019.1690816] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Weiyi Ma
- School of Human Environmental Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA
| | - Peng Zhou
- Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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Liu L, Ong JH, Tuninetti A, Escudero P. One Way or Another: Evidence for Perceptual Asymmetry in Pre-attentive Learning of Non-native Contrasts. Front Psychol 2018; 9:162. [PMID: 29615941 PMCID: PMC5869940 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2017] [Accepted: 01/31/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Research investigating listeners' neural sensitivity to speech sounds has largely focused on segmental features. We examined Australian English listeners' perception and learning of a supra-segmental feature, pitch direction in a non-native tonal contrast, using a passive oddball paradigm and electroencephalography. The stimuli were two contours generated from naturally produced high-level and high-falling tones in Mandarin Chinese, differing only in pitch direction (Liu and Kager, 2014). While both contours had similar pitch onsets, the pitch offset of the falling contour was lower than that of the level one. The contrast was presented in two orientations (standard and deviant reversed) and tested in two blocks with the order of block presentation counterbalanced. Mismatch negativity (MMN) responses showed that listeners discriminated the non-native tonal contrast only in the second block, reflecting indications of learning through exposure during the first block. In addition, listeners showed a later MMN peak for their second block of test relative to listeners who did the same block first, suggesting linguistic (as opposed to acoustic) processing or a misapplication of perceptual strategies from the first to the second block. The results also showed a perceptual asymmetry for change in pitch direction: listeners who encountered a falling tone deviant in the first block had larger frontal MMN amplitudes than listeners who encountered a level tone deviant in the first block. The implications of our findings for second language speech and the developmental trajectory for tone perception are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liquan Liu
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Jia Hoong Ong
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Alba Tuninetti
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Paola Escudero
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Liu L, Kager R. Monolingual and Bilingual Infants' Ability to Use Non-native Tone for Word Learning Deteriorates by the Second Year After Birth. Front Psychol 2018; 9:117. [PMID: 29599730 PMCID: PMC5862817 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2017] [Accepted: 01/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies reported a non-native word learning advantage for bilingual infants at around 18 months. We investigated developmental changes in infant interpretation of sounds that aid in object mapping. Dutch monolingual and bilingual (exposed to Dutch and a second non-tone-language) infants' word learning ability was examined on two novel label-object pairings using syllables differing in Mandarin tones as labels (flat vs. falling). Infants aged 14-15 months, regardless of language backgrounds, were sensitive to violations in the label-objects pairings when lexical tones were switched compared to when they were the same as habituated. Conversely at 17-18 months, neither monolingual nor bilingual infants demonstrated learning. Linking with existing literature, infants' ability to associate non-native tones with meanings may be related to tonal acoustic properties and/or perceptual assimilation to native prosodic categories. These findings provide new insights into the relation between infant tone perception, learning, and interpretative narrowing from a developmental perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liquan Liu
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Utrecht Institute of Linguistics-OTS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian Research Council, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - René Kager
- Utrecht Institute of Linguistics-OTS, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
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Stepanov A, Pavlič M, Stateva P, Reboul A. Children's early bilingualism and musical training influence prosodic discrimination of sentences in an unknown language. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 143:EL1. [PMID: 29390762 DOI: 10.1121/1.5019700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
This study investigated whether early bilingualism and early musical training positively influence the ability to discriminate between prosodic patterns corresponding to different syntactic structures in otherwise phonetically identical sentences in an unknown language. In a same-different discrimination task, participants (N = 108) divided into four groups (monolingual non-musicians, monolingual musicians, bilingual non-musicians, and bilingual musicians) listened to pairs of short sentences in a language unknown to them (French). In discriminating phonetically identical but prosodically different sentences, musicians, bilinguals, and bilingual musicians outperformed the controls. However, there was no interaction between bilingualism and musical training to suggest an additive effect. These results underscore the significant role of both types of experience in enhancing the listeners' sensitivity to prosodic information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Stepanov
- Center for Cognitive Science of Language, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia , ,
| | - Matic Pavlič
- Center for Cognitive Science of Language, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia , ,
| | - Penka Stateva
- Center for Cognitive Science of Language, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia , ,
| | - Anne Reboul
- Institute for Cognitive Sciences-Marc Jeannerod, CNRS UMR 5304, Bron, France
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