Céline Marie

Transfer of training between music and speech: common processing, attention, and memory

After a brief historical perspective of the relationship between language and music, we review our work on transfer of training from music to speech that aimed at testing the general hypothesis that musicians should be more sensitive than non-musicians to speech sounds. In light of recent results in the literature, we argue that when long-term experience in one domain influences acoustic processing in the other domain, results can be interpreted as common acoustic processing. But when long-term experience in one domain influences the building-up of abstract and specific percepts in another domain, results are taken as evidence for transfer of training effects. Moreover, we also discuss the influence of attention and working memory on transfer effects and we highlight the usefulness of the event-related potentials method to disentangle the different processes that unfold in the course of music and speech perception. Finally, we give an overview of an on-going longitudinal project with children aimed at testing transfer effects from music to different levels and aspects of speech processing.

Influence of musical expertise on segmental and tonal processing in mandarin chinese

A same–different task was used to test the hypothesis that musical expertise improves the discrimination of tonal and segmental (consonant, vowel) variations in a tone language, Mandarin Chinese. Two four-word sequences (prime and target) were presented to French musicians and nonmusicians unfamiliar with Mandarin, and event-related brain potentials were recorded. Musicians detected both tonal and segmental variations more accurately than nonmusicians. Moreover, tonal variations were associated with higher error rate than segmental variations and elicited an increased N2/N3 component that developed 100 msec earlier in musicians than in nonmusicians. Finally, musicians also showed enhanced P3b components to both tonal and segmental variations. These results clearly show that musical expertise influenced the perceptual processing as well as the categorization of linguistic contrasts in a foreign language. They show positive music-to-language transfer effects and open new perspectives for the learning of tone languages.

Enhanced passive and active processing of syllables in musician children

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of musical expertise in 9-year-old children on passive (as reflected by MMN) and active (as reflected by discrimination accuracy) processing of speech sounds. Musician and nonmusician children were presented with a sequence of syllables that included standards and deviants in vowel frequency, vowel duration, and VOT. Both the passive and the active processing of duration and VOT deviants were enhanced in musician compared with nonmusician children. Moreover, although no effect was found on the passive processing of frequency, active frequency discrimination was enhanced in musician children. These findings are discussed in terms of common processing of acoustic features in music and speech and of positive transfer of training from music to the more abstract phonological representations of speech units (syllables).

Musical and linguistic expertise influence pre-attentive and attentive processing of non-speech sounds

The aim of this experiment was two-fold. Our first goal was to determine whether linguistic expertise influences the pre-attentive [as reflected by the Mismatch Negativity - (MMN)] and the attentive processing (as reflected by behavioural discrimination accuracy) of non-speech, harmonic sounds. The second was to directly compare the effects of linguistic and musical expertise. To this end, we compared non-musician native speakers of a quantity language, Finnish, in which duration is a phonemically contrastive cue, with French musicians and French non-musicians. Results revealed that pre-attentive and attentive processing of duration deviants was enhanced in Finn non-musicians and French musicians compared to French non-musicians. By contrast, MMN in French musicians was larger than in both Finns and French non-musicians for frequency deviants, whereas no between-group differences were found for intensity deviants. By showing similar effects of linguistic and musical expertise, these results argue in favor of common processing of duration in music and speech.

Becoming musically enculturated: effects of music classes for infants on brain and behavior

Musical enculturation is a complex, multifaceted process that includes the development of perceptual processing specialized for the pitch and rhythmic structures of the musical system in the culture, understanding of esthetic and expressive norms, and learning the pragmatic uses of music in different social situations. Here, we summarize the results of a study in which 6‐month‐old Western infants were randomly assigned to 6 months of either an active participatory music class or a class in which they experienced music passively while playing. Active music participation resulted in earlier enculturation to Western tonal pitch structure, larger and/or earlier brain responses to musical tones, and a more positive social trajectory. Furthermore, the data suggest that early exposure to cultural norms of musical expression leads to early preferences for those norms. We conclude that musical enculturation begins in infancy and that active participatory music making in a positive social setting accelerates enculturation.

Superior time perception for lower musical pitch explains why bass-ranged instruments lay down musical rhythms

Significance To what extent are musical conventions determined by evolutionarily-shaped human physiology? Across cultures, polyphonic music most often conveys melody in higher-pitched sounds and rhythm in lower-pitched sounds. Here, we show that, when two streams of tones are presented simultaneously, the brain better detects timing deviations in the lower-pitched than in the higher-pitched stream and that tapping synchronization to the tones is more influenced by the lower-pitched stream. Furthermore, our modeling reveals that, with simultaneous sounds, superior encoding of timing for lower sounds and of pitch for higher sounds arises early in the auditory pathway in the cochlea of the inner ear. Thus, these musical conventions likely arise from very basic auditory physiology. The auditory environment typically contains several sound sources that overlap in time, and the auditory system parses the complex sound wave into streams or voices that represent the various sound sources. Music is also often polyphonic. Interestingly, the main melody (spectral/pitch information) is most often carried by the highest-pitched voice, and the rhythm (temporal foundation) is most often laid down by the lowest-pitched voice. Previous work using electroencephalography (EEG) demonstrated that the auditory cortex encodes pitch more robustly in the higher of two simultaneous tones or melodies, and modeling work indicated that this high-voice superiority for pitch originates in the sensory periphery. Here, we investigated the neural basis of carrying rhythmic timing information in lower-pitched voices. We presented simultaneous high-pitched and low-pitched tones in an isochronous stream and occasionally presented either the higher or the lower tone 50 ms earlier than expected, while leaving the other tone at the expected time. EEG recordings revealed that mismatch negativity responses were larger for timing deviants of the lower tones, indicating better timing encoding for lower-pitched compared with higher-pitch tones at the level of auditory cortex. A behavioral motor task revealed that tapping synchronization was more influenced by the lower-pitched stream. Results from a biologically plausible model of the auditory periphery suggest that nonlinear cochlear dynamics contribute to the observed effect. The low-voice superiority effect for encoding timing explains the widespread musical practice of carrying rhythm in bass-ranged instruments and complements previously established high-voice superiority effects for pitch and melody.

Sound categorization and conceptual priming for nonlinguistic and linguistic sounds

The aim of these experiments was to compare conceptual priming for linguistic and for a homogeneous class of nonlinguistic sounds, impact sounds, by using both behavioral (percentage errors and RTs) and electrophysiological measures (ERPs). Experiment 1 aimed at studying the neural basis of impact sound categorization by creating typical and ambiguous sounds from different material categories (wood, metal, and glass). Ambiguous sounds were associated with slower RTs and larger N280, smaller P350/P550 components, and larger negative slow wave than typical impact sounds. Thus, ambiguous sounds were more difficult to categorize than typical sounds. A category membership task was used in Experiment 2. Typical sounds were followed by sounds from the same or from a different category or by ambiguous sounds. Words were followed by words, pseudowords, or nonwords. Error rate was highest for ambiguous sounds and for pseudowords and both elicited larger N400-like components than same typical sounds and words. Moreover, both different typical sounds and nonwords elicited P300 components. These results are discussed in terms of similar conceptual priming effects for nonlinguistic and linguistic stimuli.

Development of Simultaneous Pitch Encoding: Infants Show a High Voice Superiority Effect

Infants must learn to make sense of real-world auditory environments containing simultaneous and overlapping sounds. In adults, event-related potential studies have demonstrated the existence of separate preattentive memory traces for concurrent note sequences and revealed perceptual dominance for encoding of the voice with higher fundamental frequency of 2 simultaneous tones or melodies. Here, we presented 2 simultaneous streams of notes (15 semitones apart) to 7-month-old infants. On 50% of trials, either the higher or the lower note was modified by one semitone, up or down, leaving 50% standard trials. Infants showed mismatch negativity (MMN) to changes in both voices, indicating separate memory traces for each voice. Furthermore, MMN was earlier and larger for the higher voice as in adults. When in the context of a second voice, representation of the lower voice was decreased and that of the higher voice increased compared with when each voice was presented alone. Additionally, correlations between MMN amplitude and amount of weekly music listening suggest that experience affects the development of auditory memory. In sum, the ability to process simultaneous pitches and the dominance of the highest voice emerge early during infancy and are likely important for the perceptual organization of sound in realistic environments.

Explaining the high voice superiority effect in polyphonic music: evidence from cortical evoked potentials and peripheral auditory models.

Natural auditory environments contain multiple simultaneously-sounding objects and the auditory system must parse the incoming complex sound wave they collectively create into parts that represent each of these individual objects. Music often similarly requires processing of more than one voice or stream at the same time, and behavioral studies demonstrate that human listeners show a systematic perceptual bias in processing the highest voice in multi-voiced music. Here, we review studies utilizing event-related brain potentials (ERPs), which support the notions that (1) separate memory traces are formed for two simultaneous voices (even without conscious awareness) in auditory cortex and (2) adults show more robust encoding (i.e., larger ERP responses) to deviant pitches in the higher than in the lower voice, indicating better encoding of the former. Furthermore, infants also show this high-voice superiority effect, suggesting that the perceptual dominance observed across studies might result from neurophysiological characteristics of the peripheral auditory system. Although musically untrained adults show smaller responses in general than musically trained adults, both groups similarly show a more robust cortical representation of the higher than of the lower voice. Finally, years of experience playing a bass-range instrument reduces but does not reverse the high voice superiority effect, indicating that although it can be modified, it is not highly neuroplastic. Results of new modeling experiments examined the possibility that characteristics of middle-ear filtering and cochlear dynamics (e.g., suppression) reflected in auditory nerve firing patterns might account for the higher-voice superiority effect. Simulations show that both place and temporal AN coding schemes well-predict a high-voice superiority across a wide range of interval spacings and registers. Collectively, we infer an innate, peripheral origin for the higher-voice superiority observed in human ERP and psychophysical music listening studies.

Early development of polyphonic sound encoding and the high voice superiority effect.

Previous research suggests that when two streams of pitched tones are presented simultaneously, adults process each stream in a separate memory trace, as reflected by mismatch negativity (MMN), a component of the event-related potential (ERP). Furthermore, a superior encoding of the higher tone or voice in polyphonic sounds has been found for 7-month-old infants and both musician and non-musician adults in terms of a larger amplitude MMN in response to pitch deviant stimuli in the higher than the lower voice. These results, in conjunction with modeling work, suggest that the high voice superiority effect might originate in characteristics of the peripheral auditory system. If this is the case, the high voice superiority effect should be present in infants younger than 7 months. In the present study we tested 3-month-old infants as there is no evidence at this age of perceptual narrowing or specialization of musical processing according to the pitch or rhythmic structure of music experienced in the infant׳s environment. We presented two simultaneous streams of tones (high and low) with 50% of trials modified by 1 semitone (up or down), either on the higher or the lower tone, leaving 50% standard trials. Results indicate that like the 7-month-olds, 3-month-old infants process each tone in a separate memory trace and show greater saliency for the higher tone. Although MMN was smaller and later in both voices for the group of sixteen 3-month-olds compared to the group of sixteen 7-month-olds, the size of the difference in MMN for the high compared to low voice was similar across ages. These results support the hypothesis of an innate peripheral origin of the high voice superiority effect.