"When Music Speaks": Auditory Cortex Morphology as a Neuroanatomical Marker of Language Aptitude and Musicality.

Sabrina Turker,Susanne M Reiterer,Annemarie Seither-Preisler,Peter Schneider

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02096

Abstract

Recent research has shown that the morphology of certain brain regions may indeed correlate with a number of cognitive skills such as musicality or language ability. The main aim of the present study was to explore the extent to which foreign language aptitude, in particular phonetic coding ability, is influenced by the morphology of Heschl’s gyrus (HG; auditory cortex), working memory capacity, and musical ability. In this study, the auditory cortices of German-speaking individuals (N = 30; 13 males/17 females; aged 20–40 years) with high and low scores in a number of language aptitude tests were compared. The subjects’ language aptitude was measured by three different tests, namely a Hindi speech imitation task (phonetic coding ability), an English pronunciation assessment, and the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT). Furthermore, working memory capacity and musical ability were assessed to reveal their relationship with foreign language aptitude. On the behavioral level, significant correlations were found between phonetic coding ability, English pronunciation skills, musical experience, and language aptitude as measured by the MLAT. Parts of all three tests measuring language aptitude correlated positively and significantly with each other, supporting their validity for measuring components of language aptitude. Remarkably, the number of instruments played by subjects showed significant correlations with all language aptitude measures and musicality, whereas, the number of foreign languages did not show any correlations. With regard to the neuroanatomy of auditory cortex, adults with very high scores in the Hindi testing and the musicality test (AMMA) demonstrated a clear predominance of complete posterior HG duplications in the right hemisphere. This may reignite the discussion of the importance of the right hemisphere for language processing, especially when linked or common resources are involved, such as the inter-dependency between phonetic and musical aptitude.

Highlights

There has always been a fascination with the simple fact that some individuals are strikingly better at doing something, e.g., playing an instrument, singing, or learning a foreign language
Descriptive Results First of all, a brief summary of the descriptive results of the variety of tests shall be given. Both the English pronunciation score and the Hindi imitation score are considered as measures for language aptitude
Since the main aim of our research was to explore the connection between these three variables and especially their relationship with auditory cortex morphology, they will be discussed separately in the upcoming paragraphs

Summary

Introduction

There has always been a fascination with the simple fact that some individuals are strikingly better at doing something, e.g., playing an instrument, singing, or learning a foreign language. In the 1st years after the birth of language aptitude research, it was regarded as an exceptional ability that facilitates foreign language learning in terms that individuals learn a language very quickly and with little effort (Carroll, 1958, 1962, 1973, 1990; Stansfield and Reed, 2004). Some theoretical advancements have been made and it has been agreed that inductive language learning ability and grammatical sensitivity are most suitably summarized in one category termed language analytic ability (Robinson, 2001, 2002, 2012; Abrahamsson and Hyltenstam, 2008; Kocic, 2010; Biedron, 2015; Biedronand Pawlak, 2016a,b; Wen et al, 2017). Researchers have questioned whether the distinctive components of language aptitude might be more or less influential at different stages and in different contexts of learning (Abrahamsson and Hyltenstam, 2008; Artieda and Muñoz, 2016)

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