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Kim HW, Kovar J, Bajwa JS, Mian Y, Ahmad A, Mancilla Moreno M, Price TJ, Lee YS. Rhythmic motor behavior explains individual differences in grammar skills in adults. Sci Rep 2024; 14:3710. [PMID: 38355855 PMCID: PMC10867023 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53382-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
A growing body of literature has reported the relationship between music and language, particularly between individual differences in perceptual rhythm skill and grammar competency in children. Here, we investigated whether motoric aspects of rhythm processing-as measured by rhythmic finger tapping tasks-also explain the rhythm-grammar connection in 150 healthy young adults. We found that all expressive rhythm skills (spontaneous, synchronized, and continued tapping) along with rhythm discrimination skill significantly predicted receptive grammar skills on either auditory sentence comprehension or grammaticality well-formedness judgment (e.g., singular/plural, past/present), even after controlling for verbal working memory and music experience. Among these, synchronized tapping and rhythm discrimination explained unique variance of sentence comprehension and grammaticality judgment, respectively, indicating differential associations between different rhythm and grammar skills. Together, we demonstrate that even simple and repetitive motor behavior can account for seemingly high-order grammar skills in the adult population, suggesting that the sensorimotor system continue to support syntactic operations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun-Woong Kim
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
- Callier Center for Communication Disorders, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
| | - Jessica Kovar
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
- Callier Center for Communication Disorders, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
| | - Jesper Singh Bajwa
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
| | - Yasir Mian
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
| | - Ayesha Ahmad
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
- Department of Neuroscience and Center for Advanced Pain Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
| | - Marisol Mancilla Moreno
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
- Department of Neuroscience and Center for Advanced Pain Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
| | - Theodore J Price
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
- Department of Neuroscience and Center for Advanced Pain Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
| | - Yune Sang Lee
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA.
- Callier Center for Communication Disorders, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA.
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA.
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Fram NR, Liu T, Lense MD. Social interaction links active musical rhythm engagement and expressive communication in autistic toddlers. Autism Res 2024; 17:338-354. [PMID: 38197536 PMCID: PMC10922396 DOI: 10.1002/aur.3090] [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: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/17/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
Rhythm is implicated in both social and linguistic development. Rhythm perception and production skills are also key vulnerabilities in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism which impact social communication. However, direct links between musical rhythm engagement and expressive communication in autism is not clearly evident. This absence of a direct connection between rhythm and expressive communication indicates that the mechanism of action between rhythm and expressive communication may recruit other cognitive or developmental factors. We hypothesized that social interactions, including general interpersonal relationships and interactive music-making involving children and caregivers, were a significant such factor, particularly in autism. To test this, we collected data from parents of autistic and nonautistic children 14-36 months of age, including parent reports of their children's rhythmic musical engagement, general social skills, parent-child musical interactions, and expressive communication skills. Path analysis revealed a system of independent, indirect pathways from rhythmic musical engagement to expressive communication via social skills and parent-child musical interactions in autistic toddlers. Such a system implies both that social and musical interactions represent crucial links between rhythm and language and that different kinds of social interactions play parallel, independent roles linking rhythmic musical engagement with expressive communication skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noah R. Fram
- Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
| | - Talia Liu
- Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University
| | - Miriam D. Lense
- Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
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Persici V, Blain SD, Iversen JR, Key AP, Kotz SA, Devin McAuley J, Gordon RL. Individual differences in neural markers of beat processing relate to spoken grammar skills in six-year-old children. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2023; 246:105345. [PMID: 37994830 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 10/05/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023]
Abstract
Based on the idea that neural entrainment establishes regular attentional fluctuations that facilitate hierarchical processing in both music and language, we hypothesized that individual differences in syntactic (grammatical) skills will be partly explained by patterns of neural responses to musical rhythm. To test this hypothesis, we recorded neural activity using electroencephalography (EEG) while children (N = 25) listened passively to rhythmic patterns that induced different beat percepts. Analysis of evoked beta and gamma activity revealed that individual differences in the magnitude of neural responses to rhythm explained variance in six-year-olds' expressive grammar abilities, beyond and complementarily to their performance in a behavioral rhythm perception task. These results reinforce the idea that mechanisms of neural beat entrainment may be a shared neural resource supporting hierarchical processing across music and language and suggest a relevant marker of the relationship between rhythm processing and grammar abilities in elementary-school-age children, previously observed only behaviorally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Persici
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy; Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
| | - Scott D Blain
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - John R Iversen
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Institute for Neural Computation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Alexandra P Key
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Sonja A Kotz
- Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - 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 Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
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Pino MC, Giancola M, D'Amico S. The Association between Music and Language in Children: A State-of-the-Art Review. CHILDREN (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 10:children10050801. [PMID: 37238349 DOI: 10.3390/children10050801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2023] [Revised: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Music and language are two complex systems that specifically characterize the human communication toolkit. There has been a heated debate in the literature on whether music was an evolutionary precursor to language or a byproduct of cognitive faculties that developed to support language. The present review of existing literature about the relationship between music and language highlights that music plays a critical role in language development in early life. Our findings revealed that musical properties, such as rhythm and melody, could affect language acquisition in semantic processing and grammar, including syntactic aspects and phonological awareness. Overall, the results of the current review shed further light on the complex mechanisms involving the music-language link, highlighting that music plays a central role in the comprehension of language development from the early stages of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Chiara Pino
- Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Marco Giancola
- Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Simonetta D'Amico
- Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
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Ladányi E, Novakovic M, Boorom OA, Aaron AS, Scartozzi AC, Gustavson DE, Nitin R, Bamikole PO, Vaughan C, Fromboluti EK, Schuele CM, Camarata SM, McAuley JD, Gordon RL. Using Motor Tempi to Understand Rhythm and Grammatical Skills in Developmental Language Disorder and Typical Language Development. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2023; 4:1-28. [PMID: 36875176 PMCID: PMC9979588 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2021] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show relative weaknesses on rhythm tasks beyond their characteristic linguistic impairments. The current study compares preferred tempo and the width of an entrainment region for 5- to 7-year-old typically developing (TD) children and children with DLD and considers the associations with rhythm aptitude and expressive grammar skills in the two populations. Preferred tempo was measured with a spontaneous motor tempo task (tapping tempo at a comfortable speed), and the width (range) of an entrainment region was measured by the difference between the upper (slow) and lower (fast) limits of tapping a rhythm normalized by an individual's spontaneous motor tempo. Data from N = 16 children with DLD and N = 114 TD children showed that whereas entrainment-region width did not differ across the two groups, slowest motor tempo, the determinant of the upper (slow) limit of the entrainment region, was at a faster tempo in children with DLD vs. TD. In other words, the DLD group could not pace their slow tapping as slowly as the TD group. Entrainment-region width was positively associated with rhythm aptitude and receptive grammar even after taking into account potential confounding factors, whereas expressive grammar did not show an association with any of the tapping measures. Preferred tempo was not associated with any study variables after including covariates in the analyses. These results motivate future neuroscientific studies of low-frequency neural oscillatory mechanisms as the potential neural correlates of entrainment-region width and their associations with musical rhythm and spoken language processing in children with typical and atypical language development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enikő Ladányi
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Michaela Novakovic
- Department of Pharmacology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
| | - Olivia A. Boorom
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
| | - Allison S. Aaron
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA
| | - Alyssa C. Scartozzi
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
| | - Daniel E. Gustavson
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO
| | - Rachana Nitin
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
| | - Peter O. Bamikole
- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR
| | - Chloe Vaughan
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | | | - C. Melanie Schuele
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Stephen M. Camarata
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - J. Devin McAuley
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
| | - Reyna L. Gordon
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
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