Abstract
Long-term music training can positively impact speech processing. A recent framework developed to explain such cross-domain plasticity posits that music training-related advantages in speech processing are due to shared cognitive and perceptual processes between music and speech. Although perceptual and cognitive processing advantages due to music training have been independently demonstrated, to date no study has examined perceptual and cognitive processing within the context of a single task. The present study examines the impact of long-term music training on speech learning from a rigorous, computational perspective derived from signal detection theory. Our computational models provide independent estimates of cognitive and perceptual processing in native English-speaking musicians (n = 15, mean age = 25 years) and non-musicians (n = 15, mean age = 23 years) learning to categorize non-native lexical pitch patterns (Mandarin tones). Musicians outperformed non-musicians in this task. Model-based analyses suggested that musicians shifted from simple unidimensional decision strategies to more optimal multidimensional (MD) decision strategies sooner than non-musicians. In addition, musicians used optimal decisional strategies more often than non-musicians. However, musicians and non-musicians who used MD strategies showed no difference in performance. We estimated parameters that quantify the magnitude of perceptual variability along two dimensions that are critical for tone categorization: pitch height and pitch direction. Both musicians and non-musicians showed a decrease in perceptual variability along the pitch height dimension, but only musicians showed a significant reduction in perceptual variability along the pitch direction dimension. Notably, these advantages persisted during a generalization phase, when no feedback was provided. These results provide an insight into the mechanisms underlying the musician advantage observed in non-native speech learning.
Highlights
Music training is a rich, multimodal experience that has been found to modify the brain in many positive ways
Stimulus Characteristics Training stimuli consisted of the four Mandarin tones, tone 1 (T1), tone 2 (T2), tone 3 (T3), and tone 4 (T4) in the context of five syllables found in both Mandarin Chinese and English (“bu,” “di,” “lu,” “ma,” “mi”) by one male talker and one female talker (40 stimuli total)
But they do not provide a mechanistic explanation for this performance advantage – for instance, whether this advantage is due to cognitive and/or perceptual processing advantages in musicians
Summary
Music training is a rich, multimodal experience that has been found to modify the brain in many positive ways. Long-term music training is associated with enhanced processing of Modeling speech learning in musicians musical information such as pitch discrimination and perception (Schön et al, 2004; Tervaniemi et al, 2004; Magne et al, 2006; Bidelman et al, 2011; Zarate et al, 2012) rhythm production (Chen et al, 2008; Bailey et al, 2014), beat perception (Grahn and Rowe, 2012), and timbre discrimination (Crummer et al, 1994). In addition to musical information processing advantages, recent studies have found that long-term music training is associated with advantages that extend beyond the musical domain, such as speech processing. While the musician advantage for learning non-native speech sounds is robust, the underlying mechanisms giving rise to this advantage are poorly understood
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