Music and speech prosody: a common rhythm
Disorders of music and speech perception, known as amusia and aphasia, have traditionally been regarded as dissociated deficits based on studies of brain damaged patients. This has been taken as evidence that music and speech are perceived by largely separate and independent networks in the brain. However, recent studies of congenital amusia have broadened this view by showing that the deficit is associated with problems in perceiving speech prosody, especially intonation and emotional prosody. In the present study the association between the perception of music and speech prosody was investigated with healthy Finnish adults (n = 61) using an on-line music perception test including the Scal…
Cortical processing of musical sounds in children with Cochlear Implants
Abstract Objective We studied the neurocognitive mechanisms of musical instrument sound perception in children with Cochlear Implants (CIs) and in children with normal hearing (NH). Methods ERPs were recorded in a new multi-feature change-detection paradigm. Three magnitudes of change in fundamental frequency, musical instrument, duration, intensity increments and decrements, and presence of a temporal gap were presented amongst repeating 295 Hz piano tones. Independent Component Analysis was utilized to remove artifacts caused by the Cochlear Implants. Results The ERPs were similar in the two groups across all perceptual dimensions except for intensity increment deviants. CI children had s…
Children's brain responses to sound changes in pseudo words in a multifeature paradigm.
Abstract Objective The multifeature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm has previously been used to study MMN responses to changes in tones or isolated syllables. We tested 4–12year old children's MMNs to changes in a naturally produced pseudo word context. Methods We studied preschoolers' (under the age of 7years, N =15, mean age 5years 4months) and school childrens' (over the age of 7years, N =15, mean age 9years 3months) MMNs to five types of changes (vowel duration, fundamental frequency, gap, intensity, vowel identity) in the middle syllable of a pseudo word [tɑtɑtɑ] using a multifeature paradigm. Results Vowel duration and gap changes elicited larger frontocentral MMN responses than ot…