Event Abstract Back to Event Enhanced passive and active processing of syllables in musician children Julie Chobert1*, Céline Marie2, Clément François1, Daniele Schön1 and Mireille Besson1 1 INCM-CNRS, France 2 McMaster University, Canada The aim of this study was to examine the influence of musical expertise in 9 year-old children on passive (as reflected by the Mismatch Negativity, MMN) and active (as reflected by discrimination accuracy) processing of speech sounds. Children on their way towards musicianship had 4 years of musical training, on average and nonmusicians had no other musical training than mandatory at school. Musician and nonmusician children were presented with a sequence of syllables that included standards (syllable “Ba”) and deviants in vowel duration, vowel frequency and Voice Onset Time (VOT), either close to or far from the standard (Small and Large deviants). Following the MMN experiment, during which children watched a silent movie, the same sequence of syllables was presented again and children were asked to press a button each time they heard a deviant (active processing). Both the passive and the active processing of duration deviants were enhanced in musician compared to non-musician children. Moreover, only musician children showed larger MMN amplitude and shorter Reaction Times (RTs) to Large than to Small VOT deviants. Nonmusicians showed no differences between Large and Small VOT deviant either during passive or during active listening. Finally, no effect of musical expertise was found on the passive processing of frequency, whereas frequency discrimination was enhanced in musician children. These findings are discussed in terms of common processing of acoustic features in music and speech and of positive transfer of training from music to the more abstract phonological representations of speech units (syllables). Keywords: Language, Music Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Language Citation: Chobert J, Marie C, François C, Schön D and Besson M (2011). Enhanced passive and active processing of syllables in musician children. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00202 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Miss. Julie Chobert, INCM-CNRS, Marseille, France, julie.chobert@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Julie Chobert Céline Marie Clément François Daniele Schön Mireille Besson Google Julie Chobert Céline Marie Clément François Daniele Schön Mireille Besson Google Scholar Julie Chobert Céline Marie Clément François Daniele Schön Mireille Besson PubMed Julie Chobert Céline Marie Clément François Daniele Schön Mireille Besson Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.