The neurophysiological responses of music processing in bilingual teenagers

Abstract

The association/dissociation between music and language processing has long been a matter of debate. Musicians and tonal language speakers are more sensitive to pitch differences than nonmusicians and nontonal language speakers. Bilingual experience modulates auditory processing of sounds, but it is unclear whether and how bilingual experience affects music processing. This study examines music processing in bilingual teenagers from Mandarin (a tonal language) households and those from non-tonal language households. The central question is whether bilingual experience enhances auditory processing similarly regardless of the specific language, or whether the influence of language on music processing is language specific. Event-related potential (ERP) responses were recorded from 65 scalp sites. An oddball paradigm with six types of music changes (intensity, pitch, rhythm, timbre, slide and location) was presented. Preliminary results did not support the general bilingual advantage theory, but did support the language-specific enhancement of auditory processing.