The Interplay between Musical and Linguistic Aptitudes: A Review

Riia Milovanov,Mari Tervaniemi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00321

Riia Milovanov, Mari Tervaniemi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00321

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Abstract

According to prevailing views, brain organization is modulated by practice, e.g., during musical or linguistic training. Most recent results, using both neuropsychological tests and brain measures, revealed an intriguing connection between musical aptitude and second language linguistic abilities. A significant relationship between higher musical aptitude, better second language pronunciation skills, accurate chord discrimination ability, and more prominent sound-change-evoked brain activation in response to musical stimuli was found. Moreover, regular music practice may also have a modulatory effect on the brain’s linguistic organization and alter hemispheric functioning in those who have regularly practised music for years. These findings, together with their implications, will be introduced and elaborated in our review.

Highlights

Musical training can modulate brain functions in a holistic manner, causing even structural changes in the brain morphology
The results showed that musical training improved pitch processing in speech and the reading of irregular words
INTERPLAY BETWEEN MUSICAL APTITUDE AND SECOND LANGUAGE PRONUNCIATION SKILLS: AN EMPIRICAL ENDEAVOR The relationship between musical aptitude and linguistic abilities, in terms of second language pronunciation skills and phoneme discrimination skills, was examined in a large project (Milovanov et al, 2008, 2009, 2010; Milovanov, 2009)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Musical training can modulate brain functions in a holistic manner, causing even structural changes in the brain morphology. The role of the age at which practising a musical instrument was initiated and its effects on brain plasticity has not been widely investigated; pioneering evidence points out that the younger the subjects begin playing an instrument, the greater are the neuroplastic effects on the brain (Schlaug et al, 1995; Pantev et al, 1998). It is not yet certain how much the specific demands set up by a given musical genre or instrument can modulate the underlying brain functions (Tervaniemi, 2009). Individual variations must be borne in mind when discussing brain functioning

Musical and linguistic skills interact

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION