The Connectivity of Musical Aptitude and Foreign Language Learning Skills: Neural and Behavioural Evidence

Given the structural and acoustical similarities between speech and music, and possible overlapping cerebral structures in speech and music processing, a possible relationship between musical aptitude and linguistic abilities, especially in terms of second language pronunciation skills, was investigated. Moreover, the laterality effect of the mother tongue was examined with both adults and children by means of dichotic listening scores. Finally, two event-related potential studies sought to reveal whether children with advanced second language pronunciation skills and higher general musical aptitude differed from children with less-advanced pronunciation skills and less musical aptitude in accuracy when preattentively processing mistuned triads and music / speech sound durations. The results showed a significant relationship between musical aptitude, English language pronunciation skills, chord discrimination ability, and sound-change-evoked brain activation in response to musical stimuli (durational differences and triad contrasts). Regular music practice may also have a modulatory effect on the brain’s linguistic organization and cause altered hemispheric functioning in those who have regularly practised music for years. Based on the present results, it is proposed that language skills, both in production and discrimination, are interconnected with perceptual musical skills. List of publications 1. Milovanov, R. , Pietila, P., Tervaniemi, M. , Esquef, P.A. A. (resubmitted). Foreign language pronunciation skills and musical aptitude: a study of Finnish adults with higher education. Learning and Individual Differences. 2. Milovanov, R. , Tervaniemi, M. , Takio, F. , & Hamalainen, H. (2007). Modification of dichotic listening (DL) performance by musico-linguistic abilities and age. Brain Research 1156, 168 -173. 3. Milovanov, R. , Huotilainen, M. , Valimaki, V. , Esquef, P.A. A, & Tervaniemi, M. (2008). Musical aptitude and second language pronunciation skills in school-aged children: neural and behavioral evidence. Brain Research 1194, 81-89. 4. Milovanov, R. , Huotilainen, M. , Esquef, P.A. A. , Valimaki, V. , Alku, P., & Tervaniemi, M. (2009). The role of musical aptitude and language skills in preattentive duration determination in school-aged children. Neuroscience Letters 460 (2), 161-165. List of figures and tables Figure 1. Dichotic listening 16 Figure 2. The Mismatch Negativity 19 Figure 3. Percentage of correct reports (mean and SEM) from the Seashore musical aptitude test 28 Figure 4. Percentage of errors (mean and SEM) from the phonemic minimal pair discrimination test 29 Figure 5. Percentage of errors (mean and SEM) in the pronunciation test 29 Figure 6. Percentage of correct reports from the Seashore musical aptitude four subtests: pitch discrimination, duration, timbre and tonal memory accuracy 30 Figure 7. Dichotic listening: Percentage of correct reports for the left (Lear) and right (Rear) ear stimulus during all three conditions (Non-Forced, Forced-Right, Forced-Left) split for the results obtained from the adult subgroups and children subgroups 32 Figure 8. Percentage of correct reports (mean and SEM) from the Seashore musical aptitude test 34 Figure 9. Percentage of errors (mean and SEM) from the phonemic and triad discrimination tests before and after the pronunciation training 35 Figure 10. ERPs to standard and deviant stimuli (triads) 37 Figure 11. Difference waveforms (triads) 38 Figure 12. ERPs to standard and deviant stimuli (duration) 40 Figure 13. Difference waveforms (duration) 41 List of abbreviations ANOVA analysis of variance AMMA Advanced Measures of Music Audiation CEF Common European Framework CV consonant-vowel DL dichotic listening DTT Distorted Tunes Test EEG electroencephalogram ERP event-related potential fMRI functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging FL forced-left condition FR forced-right condition HSD honestly significant difference ISI inter-stimulus interval LE left ear MBEA Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia MMN mismatch negativity NF non-forced condition PET positron emission tomography P600 late positive component RE right ear REA right ear advantage SEM standard error of mean SOA stimulus onset asynchrony WAIS Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale WISC III Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 3rd. ed. C mistuned modification of a C major triad (2% flat) C mistuned modification of a C major triad (4% flat)