Neurofunctional and Behavioral Correlates of Phonetic and Temporal Categorization in Musically Trained and Untrained Subjects

Abstract

The perception of rapidly changing verbal and nonverbal auditory patterns is a fundamental prerequisite for speech and music processing. Previously, the left planum temporale (PT) has been consistently shown to support the discrimination of fast changing verbal and nonverbal sounds. Furthermore, it has been repeatedly shown that the functional and structural architecture of this supratemporal brain region differs as a function of musical training. In the present study, we used the functional magnetic resonance imaging technique, in a sample of professional musicians and nonmusicians, in order to examine the functional contribution of the left PT to the categorization of consonant-vowel syllables and their reduced-spectrum analogues. In line with our hypothesis, the musicians showed enhanced brain responses in the left PT and superior discrimination abilities in the reduced-spectrum condition. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between the responsiveness of the left PT and the performance in the reduced-spectrum condition across all subjects irrespective of musical expertise. These results have implications for our understanding of musical expertise in relation to segmental speech processing.