Simone Dalla Bella

Role of tempo entrainment in psychophysiological differentiation of happy and sad music

Respiration rate allows to differentiate between happy and sad excerpts which may be attributable to entrainment of respiration to the rhythm or the tempo rather than to emotions [Etzel, J.A., Johnsen, E.L., Dickerson, J., Tranel, D., Adolphs, R., 2006. Cardiovascular and respiratory responses during musical mood induction. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 61(1), 57-69]. In order to test for this hypothesis, this study intended to verify whether fast and slow rhythm, and/or tempo alone are sufficient to induce differential physiological effects. Psychophysiological responses (electrodermal responses, facial muscles activity, blood pressure, heart and respiration rate) were then measured in fifty young adults listening to fast/happy and slow/sad music, and to two control versions of these excerpts created by removing pitch variations (rhythmic version) and both pitch and temporal variations (beat-alone). The results indicate that happy and sad music are significantly differentiated (happy>sad) by diastolic blood pressure, electrodermal activity, and zygomatic activity, while the fast and slow rhythmic and tempo control versions did not elicit such differentiations. In contrast, respiration rate was faster with stimuli presented at fast tempi relative to slow stimuli in the beat-alone condition. It was thus demonstrated that the psychophysiological happy/sad distinction requires the tonal variations and cannot be explained solely by entrainment to tempo and rhythm. The tempo entrainment exists in the tempo alone condition but our results suggest this effect may disappear when embedded in music or with rhythm.

Singing proficiency in the general population

Most believe that the ability to carry a tune is unevenly distributed in the general population. To test this claim, we asked occasional singers (n=62) to sing a well-known song in both the laboratory and in a natural setting (experiment 1). Sung performances were judged by peers for proficiency, analyzed for pitch and time accuracy with an acoustic-based method, and compared to professional singing. The peer ratings for the proficiency of occasional singers were normally distributed. Only a minority of the occasional singers made numerous pitch errors. The variance in singing proficiency was largely due to tempo differences. Occasional singers tended to sing at a faster tempo and with more pitch and time errors relative to professional singers. In experiment 2 15 nonmusicians from experiment 1 sang the same song at a slow tempo. In this condition, most of the occasional singers sang as accurately as the professional singers. Thus, singing appears to be a universal human trait. However, two of the occasional singers maintained a high rate of pitch errors at the slower tempo. This poor performance was not due to impaired pitch perception, thus suggesting the existence of a purely vocal form of tone deafness.

Musically cued gait-training improves both perceptual and motor timing in Parkinson's disease.

It is well established that auditory cueing improves gait in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (IPD). Disease-related reductions in speed and step length can be improved by providing rhythmical auditory cues via a metronome or music. However, effects on cognitive aspects of motor control have yet to be thoroughly investigated. If synchronization of movement to an auditory cue relies on a supramodal timing system involved in perceptual, motor, and sensorimotor integration, auditory cueing can be expected to affect both motor and perceptual timing. Here, we tested this hypothesis by assessing perceptual and motor timing in 15 IPD patients before and after a 4-week music training program with rhythmic auditory cueing. Long-term effects were assessed 1 month after the end of the training. Perceptual and motor timing was evaluated with a battery for the assessment of auditory sensorimotor and timing abilities and compared to that of age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls. Prior to training, IPD patients exhibited impaired perceptual and motor timing. Training improved patients’ performance in tasks requiring synchronization with isochronous sequences, and enhanced their ability to adapt to durational changes in a sequence in hand tapping tasks. Benefits of cueing extended to time perception (duration discrimination and detection of misaligned beats in musical excerpts). The current results demonstrate that auditory cueing leads to benefits beyond gait and support the idea that coupling gait to rhythmic auditory cues in IPD patients relies on a neuronal network engaged in both perceptual and motor timing.

Time course of melody recognition: A gating paradigm study

Recognizing a well-known melody (e.g., one’s national anthem) is not an all-or-none process. Instead, recognition develops progressively while the melody unfolds over time. To examine which factors govern the time course of this recognition process, the gating paradigm, initially designed to study auditory word recognition, was adapted to music. Musicians and nonmusicians were presented with segments of increasing duration of familiar and unfamiliar melodies (i.e., the first note, then the first two notes, then the first three notes, and so forth). Recognition was assessed after each segment either by requiring participants to provide a familiarity judgment (Experiment 1) or by asking them to sing the melody that they thought had been presented (Experiment 2). In general, the more familiar the melody, the fewer the notes required for recognition. Musicians judged music’s familiarity within fewer notes than did nonmusicians, whereas the reverse situation (i.e., musicians were slower than nonmusicians) occurred when a sung response was requested. However, both musicians and nonmusicians appeared to segment melodies into the same perceptual units (i.e., motives) in order to access the correct representation in memory. These results are interpreted in light of the cohort model (Marslen-Wilson, 1987), as applied to the music domain.

Prelude or requiem for the |[lsquo]|Mozart effect|[rsquo]|?

Rauscher et al. reported that brief exposure to a Mozart piano sonata produces a temporary increase in spatial reasoning scores, amounting to the equivalent of 8-9 IQ points on the Stanford-Binet IQ scale. Early attempts to confirm this ‘Mozart effect’ were unsuccessful. Rauscher et al. subsequently restricted their account to an improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning, as measured by the Paper Folding and Cutting task. We use procedures modelled on the original report to show that there is little evidence for a direct effect of music exposure on reasoning ability.

Disorders of pitch production in tone deafness.

Singing is as natural as speaking for the majority of people. Yet some individuals (i.e., 10–15%) are poor singers, typically performing or imitating pitches and melodies inaccurately. This condition, commonly referred to as “tone deafness,” has been observed both in the presence and absence of deficient pitch perception. In this article we review the existing literature concerning normal singing, poor-pitch singing, and, briefly, the sources of this condition. Considering that pitch plays a prominent role in the structure of both music and speech we also focus on the possibility that speech production (or imitation) is similarly impaired in poor-pitch singers. Preliminary evidence from our laboratory suggests that pitch imitation may be selectively inaccurate in the music domain without being affected in speech. This finding points to separability of mechanisms subserving pitch production in music and language.

Singing Proficiency in the Majority: Normality and Phenotypes of Poor Singing

Recent evidence indicates that the majority of occasional singers can carry a tune. For example, when asked to sing a well‐known song (e.g., “Happy Birthday”), nonmusicians performing at a slow tempo are as proficient as professional singers. Yet, some occasional singers are poor singers, mostly in the pitch domain, and sometimes despite not having impoverished perception. Poor singing is not a monolithic deficit, but is likely to be characterized by a diversity of singing “phenotypes.” Here we systematically examined singing proficiency in a group of occasional singers, with the goal of characterizing the different patterns of poor singing. Participants sang three well‐known melodies (e.g., “Jingle Bells”) at a natural tempo and at a slow tempo, as indicated by a metronome. For each rendition, we computed objective measures of pitch and time accuracy with an acoustical method. The results confirmed previous observations that the majority of occasional singers can sing in tune and in time. Moreover, singing at a slow tempo after the target melody to be imitated was presented with a metronome improved pitch and time accuracy. In general, poor singers were mostly impaired on the pitch dimension, although various patterns of impairment emerged. Pitch accuracy or time accuracy could be selectively impaired; moreover, absolute measures of singing proficiency (pitch or tempo transposition) dissociated from relative measures of proficiency (pitch intervals, relative duration). These patterns of dissociations point to a multicomponent system underlying proficient singing that fractionates as a result of a developmental anomaly.

Effects of musically cued gait training in Parkinson's disease: beyond a motor benefit

Auditory stimulation via rhythmic cues can be used successfully in the rehabilitation of motor function in patients with motor disorders. A prototypical example is provided by dysfunctional gait in patients with idiopathic Parkinsons disease (PD). Coupling steps to external rhythmic cues (the beat of music or the sounds of a metronome) leads to long‐term motor improvements, such as increased walking speed and greater stride length. These effects are likely to be underpinned by compensatory brain mechanisms involving cerebellar–thalamocortical networks. Because these areas are also involved in perceptual and motor timing, parallel improvement in timing tasks is expected in PD beyond purely motor benefits. In keeping with this idea, we report here recent behavioral data showing beneficial effects of musically cued gait training (MCGT) on gait performance (i.e., increased stride length and speed), perceptual timing (e.g., discriminating stimulus durations), and sensorimotor timing abilities (i.e., in paced tapping tasks) in PD patients. Particular attention is paid to individual differences in timing abilities in PD, thus paving the ground for an individualized MCGT‐based therapy.

Reducing Linguistic Information Enhances Singing Proficiency in Occasional Singers

In this study we examined the effect of reducing linguistic information on singing proficiency in occasional singers. Thirty‐nine occasional singers were asked to sing from memory and to imitate three familiar melodies with lyrics and on the syllable /la/. Performances were analyzed with an acoustically based method yielding objective measures of pitch and temporal accuracy. Results obtained in production and imitation tasks revealed increased accuracy (e.g., fewer pitch interval errors and contour errors) when occasional singers produced melodies on a syllable as compared to singing with lyrics. This effect may be the result of reduced memory load and/or motor entrainment.

Singing proficiency in congenital amusia: Imitation helps

Singing out of tune characterizes congenital amusia. Here, we examine whether an aid to memory improves singing by studying vocal imitation in 11 amusic adults and 11 matched controls. Participants sang a highly familiar melody on the original lyrics and on the syllable /la/ in three conditions. First, they sang the melody from memory. Second, they sang it after hearing a model, and third, they sang in unison with the model. Results show that amusic individuals benefit from singing by imitation, whether singing after the model or in unison with the model. The amusics who were the most impaired in memory benefited most, particularly when singing on the syllable /la/. Nevertheless, singing remains poor on the pitch dimension; rhythm was intact and unaffected by imitation. These results point to memory as a source of impairment in poor singing, and to imitation as a possible aid for poor singers.