Speech and music rhythm: A pilot study on English and Italian songs

Instrumental and vocal compositions agree with the mother tongue rhythm of the composer, proving that the same rhythmic categorization operates on both linguistic and music levels. In this study we aimed to verify how strong the mother tongue rhythm of the singers is in relation to the mother tongue rhythm of the composers, and if this is also able to influence the music rhythm of their songs. The results of the analysis of original English and Italian songs along with their foreign versions suggest that on the music level the stress-timed rhythm exerted a greater influence than the syllable-timed one, being able to influence the music rhythm of the Italian version of the English songs. On the contrary, on sung level both timing categories seem to be equally strong

Musical sophistication and speech auditory-motor coupling: Easy tests for quick answers

Musical training enhances auditory-motor cortex coupling, which in turn facilitates music and speech perception. How tightly the temporal processing of music and speech are intertwined is a topic of current research. We investigated the relationship between musical sophistication (Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication index, Gold-MSI) and spontaneous speech-to-speech synchronization behavior as an indirect measure of speech auditory-motor cortex coupling strength. In a group of participants (n = 196), we tested whether the outcome of the spontaneous speech-to-speech synchronization test (SSS-test) can be inferred from self-reported musical sophistication. Participants were classified as high (HIGHs) or low (LOWs) synchronizers according to the SSS-test. HIGHs scored higher than LOWs on all Gold-MSI subscales (General Score, Active Engagement, Musical Perception, Musical Training, Singing Skills), but the Emotional Attachment scale. More specifically, compared to a previously reported German-speaking sample, HIGHs overall scored higher and LOWs lower. Compared to an estimated distribution of the English-speaking general population, our sample overall scored lower, with the scores of LOWs significantly differing from the normal distribution, with scores in the ∼30th percentile. While HIGHs more often reported musical training compared to LOWs, the distribution of training instruments did not vary across groups. Importantly, even after the highly correlated subscores of the Gold-MSI were decorrelated, particularly the subscales Musical Perception and Musical Training allowed to infer the speech-to-speech synchronization behavior. The differential effects of musical perception and training were observed, with training predicting audio-motor synchronization in both groups, but perception only in the HIGHs. Our findings suggest that speech auditory-motor cortex coupling strength can be inferred from training and perceptual aspects of musical sophistication, suggesting shared mechanisms involved in speech and music perception

Cortical and behavioural tracking of rhythm in music:Effects of pitch predictability, enjoyment, and expertise

Cortical tracking of stimulus features (such as the envelope) is a crucial tractable neural mechanism, allowing us to investigate how we process continuous music. We here tested whether cortical and behavioural tracking of beat, typically related to rhythm processing, are modulated by pitch predictability. In two experiments (n=20, n=52), participants’ ability to tap along to the beat of musical sequences was measured for tonal (high pitch predictability) and atonal (low pitch predictability) music. In Experiment 1, we additionally measured participants’ EEG and analysed cortical tracking of the acoustic envelope and of pitch surprisal (using IDyOM). In both experiments, finger-tapping performance was better in the tonal than the atonal condition, indicating a positive effect of pitch predictability on behavioural rhythm processing. Neural data revealed that the acoustic envelope was tracked stronger while listening to atonal than tonal music, potentially reflecting listeners’ violated pitch expectations. Our findings show that cortical envelope tracking, beyond reflecting musical rhythm processing, is modulated by pitch predictability (as well as musical expertise and enjoyment). Stronger cortical surprisal tracking was linked to overall worse envelope tracking, and worse finger-tapping performance for atonal music. Specifically, the low pitch predictability in atonal music seems to draw attentional resources resulting in a reduced ability to follow the rhythm behaviourally. Overall, cortical envelope and surprisal tracking were differentially related to behaviour in tonal and atonal music, likely reflecting differential processing under conditions of high and low predictability. Taken together, our results show diverse effects of pitch predictability on musical rhythm processing

On the speaker discriminatory power asymmetry regarding acoustic-phonetic parameters and the impact of speaking style

This study aimed to assess what we refer to as the speaker discriminatory power asymmetry and its forensic implications in comparisons performed in different speaking styles: spontaneous dialogues vs. interviews. We also addressed the impact of data sampling on the speaker's discriminatory performance concerning different acoustic-phonetic estimates. The participants were 20 male speakers, Brazilian Portuguese speakers from the same dialectal area. The speech material consisted of spontaneous telephone conversations between familiar individuals, and interviews conducted between each individual participant and the researcher. Nine acoustic-phonetic parameters were chosen for the comparisons, spanning from temporal and melodic to spectral acoustic-phonetic estimates. Ultimately, an analysis based on the combination of different parameters was also conducted. Two speaker discriminatory metrics were examined: Cost Log-likelihood-ratio (Cllr) and Equal Error Rate (EER) values. A general speaker discriminatory trend was suggested when assessing the parameters individually. Parameters pertaining to the temporal acoustic-phonetic class depicted the weakest performance in terms of speaker contrasting power as evidenced by the relatively higher Cllr and EER values. Moreover, from the set of acoustic parameters assessed, spectral parameters, mainly high formant frequencies, i.e., F3 and F4, were the best performing in terms of speaker discrimination, depicting the lowest EER and Cllr scores. The results appear to suggest a speaker discriminatory power asymmetry concerning parameters from different acoustic-phonetic classes, in which temporal parameters tended to present a lower discriminatory power. The speaking style mismatch also seemed to considerably impact the speaker comparison task, by undermining the overall discriminatory performance. A statistical model based on the combination of different acoustic-phonetic estimates was found to perform best in this case. Finally, data sampling has proven to be of crucial relevance for the reliability of discriminatory power assessment

How musical rhythms entrain the human brain : clarifying the neural mechanisms of sensory-motor entrainment to rhythms

When listening to music, people across cultures tend to spontaneously perceive and move the body along a periodic pulse-like meter. Increasing evidence suggests that this ability is supported by neural mechanisms that selectively amplify periodicities corresponding to the perceived metric pulses. However, the nature of these neural mechanisms, i.e., the endogenous or exogenous factors that may selectively enhance meter periodicities in brain responses to rhythm, remains largely unknown. This question was investigated in a series of studies in which the electroencephalogram (EEG) of healthy participants was recorded while they listened to musical rhythm. From this EEG, selective contrast at meter periodicities in the elicited neural activity was captured using frequency-tagging, a method allowing direct comparison of this contrast between the sensory input, EEG response, biologically-plausible models of auditory subcortical processing, and behavioral output. The results show that the selective amplification of meter periodicities is shaped by a continuously updated combination of factors including sound spectral content, long-term training and recent context, irrespective of attentional focus and beyond auditory subcortical nonlinear processing. Together, these observations demonstrate that perception of rhythm involves a number of processes that transform the sensory input via fixed low-level nonlinearities, but also through flexible mappings shaped by prior experience at different timescales. These higher-level neural mechanisms could represent a neurobiological basis for the remarkable flexibility and stability of meter perception relative to the acoustic input, which is commonly observed within and across individuals. Fundamentally, the current results add to the evidence that evolution has endowed the human brain with an extraordinary capacity to organize, transform, and interact with rhythmic signals, to achieve adaptive behavior in a complex dynamic environment

Exploring the rhythmic abilities of pre-school children: evidence from correlational and priming studies

Η παρούσα διατριβή επικεντρώνεται στη θεωρητική και πειραματική σχέση μεταξύ γλωσσικών και μουσικών δεξιοτήτων. Η γλώσσα και η μουσική είναι κεντρικές ανθρώπινες ιδιότητες και η φύση τους έχει προβληματίσει φιλοσόφους, γνωστικούς (νευρο-)επιστήμονες, γλωσσολόγους και μουσικολόγους. Στην παρούσα διατριβή προτείνεται ένα θεωρητικό πλαίσιο πάνω στο οποίο μπορεί να χαρτογραφηθεί η θεωρητική και πειραματική έρευνα γύρω από τη γλώσσα και τη μουσική. Αυτό το πλαίσιο περιλαμβάνει αφενός προσεγγίσεις οι οποίες εξετάζουν τη γλώσσα και τη μουσική σε σχέση με έναν εξιδανικευμένο ακροατή/ομιλητή με εσωτερικευμένες γλωσσικές και μουσικές αναπαραστάσεις, και αφετέρου προσεγγίσεις οι οποίες εξετάζουν τη γλώσσα και τη μουσική σε σχέση με την (ακουστική) επεξεργασία σε πραγματικό χρόνο. Έχει βρεθεί ότι οι μουσικές δεξιότητες των παιδιών συσχετίζονται με τις γλωσσικές τους δεξιότητες, τόσο στην τυπική όσο και στη μη τυπική ανάπτυξη. Επιπλέον η ρυθμική προέγερση φαίνεται να διευκολύνει τις γλωσσικές δοκιμασίες όπως οι κρίσεις γραμματικότητας, σε παιδιά τόσο τυπικής όσο και μη τυπικής ανάπτυξης. Τρία ζητήματα χρήζουν περαιτέρω διερεύνησης: (α) η φύση της σχέσης μεταξύ γλωσσικών και μουσικών δεξιοτήτων, καθώς κάποια από τα προηγούμενα ευρήματα έχουν εστιάσει στη σύνδεση δεξιοτήτων ρυθμικής αντίληψης και δεξιοτήτων σύνταξης από τη μία και δεξιοτήτων μελωδικής αντίληψης και φωνολογικής ενημερότητας από την άλλη· (β) η συνεισφορά γενικών γνωστικών δεξιοτήτων, όπως η μνήμη εργασίας και η προσοχή, ιδιαίτερα σε σχέση με τις διαφορετικές τροπικότητες (ακουστική – οπτικοχωρική)· (γ) η επαναληψιμότητα και η επέκταση του παραδείγματος της ρυθμικής προέγερσης συμπεριλαμβάνοντας δοκιμασίες κρίσης γραμματικότητας και κατανόησης αναφορικών προτάσεων υποκειμένου και αντικειμένου. Διερευνήθηκε επίσης η πιθανή εμπλοκή των γονεϊκών στάσεων και πεποιθήσεων γύρω από την έκθεση στη μουσική και τη μουσική εκπαίδευση. Συμπεριλήφθηκαν στην έρευνα 22 παιδιά τυπικής ανάπτυξης με μέσο όρο ηλικίας 5 ετών και 6 μηνών από δημόσια και ιδιωτικά νηπιαγωγεία και δημοτικά σχολεία στην Αθήνα. Σχεδιάστηκε ένα πειραματικό πρωτόκολλο πέντε (5) συνεδριών ώστε να αξιολογηθούν λεπτομερώς οι γλωσσικές, γνωστικές και μουσικές δεξιότητες των παιδιών καθώς και η επίδοσή τους σε δοκιμασίες ρυθμικής προέγερσης. Η πρώτη συνεδρία είχε ως στόχο να αξιολογήσει τη μη λεκτική νοημοσύνη, το προσληπτικό λεξιλόγιο και τις δεξιότητες επανάληψης προτάσεων. Η γλωσσική συνεδρία συμπεριέλαβε αξιολογήσεις παραγωγής και κατανόησης μορφοσύνταξης και σύνταξης καθώς και δεξιοτήτων φωνολογικής ενημερότητας. Η γνωστική συνεδρία περιελάμβανε αξιολογήσεις φωνολογικής, λεκτικής και οπτικοχωρικής μνήμης εργασίας καθώς και οπτικοχωρικής συντηρούμενης προσοχής. Η μουσική συνεδρία συμπεριέλαβε αξιολογήσεις στη μελωδική διάκριση, τη ρυθμική διάκριση και τη ρυθμική αντίληψη.Η τελευταία συνεδρία συμπεριέλαβε δύο δοκιμασίες ρυθμικής προέγερσης: μιας δοκιμασίας κρίσης γραμματικότητας και μιας δοκιμασίας αντιστοίχησης πρότασης εικόνας με την κατανόηση αναφορικών προτάσεων. Επαναλάβαμε προηγούμενα ευρήματα δείχνοντας συσχετίσεις μεταξύ γλωσσικών και μουσικών δεξιοτήτων, πιο συγκεκριμένα μεταξύ παραγωγής μορφοσύνταξης και φωνολογικής ενημερότητας από τη μία και ρυθμικής αντίληψης από την άλλη. Επιπλέον, βρήκαμε συσχετίσεις μεταξύ γλωσσικών δεξιοτήτων που δεν είχαν συμπεριληφθεί σε προηγούμενη έρευνα συσχέτισης, όπως η επανάληψη προτάσεων και η επανάληψη ψευδολέξεων. Βρήκαμε περιορισμένο ρόλο του προσληπτικού λεξιλογίου και της κατανόησης μορφοσύνταξης και σύνταξης σε σχέση με τις μουσικές/ρυθμικές δεξιότητες, σε αντίθεση με προηγούμενη έρευνα. Παρομοίως, η μελωδική διάκριση δεν συσχετίστηκε με καμία από τις γλωσσικές δεξιότητες, σε αντίθεση με προηγούμενη έρευνα. Εκτός από την επανάληψη ψευδολέξεων, η λεκτική βραχυπρόθεσμη μνήμη και μνήμη εργασίας δεν συσχετίστηκαν με την παραγωγή μορφοσύνταξης ή τη ρυθμική αντίληψη. Η οπτικοχωρική βραχυπρόθεσμη μνήμη συσχετίστηκε τόσο με την παραγωγή μορφοσύνταξης όσο και τη ρυθμική αντίληψη, καθώς και με δοκιμασίες φωνολογικής ενημερότητας, όπως αναφέρεται και σε προηγούμενη έρευνα. Όταν συγκρίθηκαν οι συσχετίσεις μεταξύ ακουστικών/λεκτικών και οπτικοχωρικών γνωστικών δεξιοτήτων δεν βρέθηκαν σημαντικές διαφορές μεταξύ των δύο. Η ρυθμική προέγερση δεν είχε αποτέλεσμα ούτε για τις κρίσεις γραμματικότητας ούτε για τη δοκιμασία αντιστοίχησης πρότασης-εικόνας και προτείνουμε πιθανούς παράγοντες σχετιζόμενους με την ηλικία και τα ερεθίσματα που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν σε προηγούμενες μελέτες. Γενικά, εφαρμόσαμε ένα ερευνητικό πρωτόκολλο με ποικίλες αξιολογήσεις γλωσσικών, γνωστικών και μουσικών δεξιοτήτων και επεκτείναμε ένα πρωτόκολλο ρυθμικής προέγερσης. Επαναλάβαμε προηγούμενα ευρήματα και δείξαμε την εμπλοκή άλλων γενικών γνωστικών μηχανισμών, οι οποίοι μπορούν να διαλευκάνουν περαιτέρω τις γλωσσικές και μουσικές δεξιότητες των παιδιών σε μελλοντική έρευνα. Η παρούσα εργασία αποτελεί μια βάση για διερεύνηση διαδικασιών μνήμης και προσοχής από τη μία και γλωσσικών και γνωστικών δεξιοτήτων από την άλλη σε παιδιά με αναπτυξιακές και γενετικές διαταραχές που έχουν δυσκολίες τόσο σε συγκεκριμένες (γλωσσικές-μουσικές) όσο και σε γενικές (γνωστικές) δεξιότητες.The present dissertation is centered around the theoretical and experimental relationship between language and music skills. Language and music are central in humans, and their nature has troubled philosophers, cognitive scientists, linguists, and musicologists. A theoretical framework is proposed on which theoretical and experimental research can be mapped regarding language and music. This framework encompasses on the one hand approaches which consider language and music in terms of an ideal listener/speaker with internal linguistic and musical representations, and on the other hand, approaches which consider language and music in terms of online, real-time (auditory) processing. Music skills in children have been reported to correlate with language skills, both for typical and atypical development. Furthermore, rhythmic priming seems to facilitate language tasks, such as grammaticality judgments, both in typically and atypically developing children. Among others, three issues require further investigation: (a) the nature of the relationship between music and language skills, as some of the previous findings have focused on links between rhythm perception skills and syntax, and melodic perception skills and phonological awareness (Gordon et al., 2014, Politimou et al., 2019); (b) the contribution of domain-general cognitive skills, such as working memory (WM) and attention, especially regarding different (auditory vs. visuospatial) modalities; (c) the replication and extension of a rhythmic priming paradigm including grammaticality judgments and subject-object relative clause comprehension tasks. The possible involvement of parental beliefs and attitudes around music exposure and education has also been investigated. Twenty-two typically developing children, with a mean age 5;6 years old were recruited from public and private nurseries and primary schools in Athens, Greece. A five-session experimental protocol was designed to assess in detail children's language, music, and cognitive skills, as well as their performance on rhythmic priming tasks. The first session aimed to assess children's non-verbal IQ, receptive vocabulary, and sentence repetition abilities. The language session covered assessment in morphosyntactic production and comprehension abilities, as well as phonological awareness abilities. The cognitive session included assessments in phonological, verbal, and visuospatial working memory, as well as visuospatial sustained attention. The music session included assessments in melody and rhythm discrimination, as well as rhythm perception. The final priming session included two rhythmic priming tasks, covering a grammaticality judgment task and a sentence-picture matching task targeting relative clause comprehension. We have replicated previous findings showing correlations between language and music skills, more specifically between morphosyntax production and phonological awareness, and rhythm perception. We have also highlighted correlations between language skills not tested in previous research and rhythm perception and discrimination, such as sentence repetition and pseudoword repetition. We found a limited role for vocabulary and morphosyntactic and syntactic comprehension with regard to music/rhythm skills, in contrast to previous research (Swaminathan and Schellenberg 2020, Lee et al., 2020). Similarly, melody discrimination was not correlated with any of the language assessments, in contrast to previous research (Politimou et al., 2019). Apart from pseudoword repetition (also considered a measure of phonological short-term memory), verbal short-term and working memory measures did not correlate with morphosyntax production or rhythm perception. Visuospatial short-term memory was correlated both with morphosyntax production and rhythm perception, as well as with phonological awareness measures, similar to previous literature (Politimou et al., 2019). When comparing correlations between auditory/verbal and visuospatial cognitive skills, we did not find a significant difference between the two. We did not find a rhythmic priming effect either for the grammaticality judgment or the sentence-picture matching task and we suggest possible age-related considerations with regard to the rhythmic priming stimuli used in studies. In general, we implemented a research protocol with diverse assessments of language, cognitive, and music skills, and have extended a rhythmic priming protocol. We have replicated previous findings, and shown involvement of other domain-general mechanisms, which can further elucidate children's language and music skills in future research. The study provides a basis for investigating memory and attention processes, and language and music abilities in children with developmental and genetic disorders who have difficulties in domain-general and domain-specific skills

Get in Sync: Entrainment Mechanisms and Individual Characteristics Associated with Scripted-Sentence Learning in Aphasia

Script training is a well-established treatment for aphasia, but its mechanisms of action are not well understood, and it remains unclear which people with aphasia (PWA) benefit from it most. Understanding both treatment mechanisms and individual characteristics leading to scripted-sentence learning can improve treatment implementation and personalization. This dissertation investigates mechanisms and individual characteristics associated with scripted-sentence learning via a protocol adapted for Spanish-speaking PWA. A hypothesized mechanism of action in script training is speech entrainment, the unison production of sentences by patient and clinician. Entrainment relies on integrating rhythmic features, but it is unclear how these features facilitate scripted-sentence learning. Therefore, aim 1 examined the effects of speech entrainment to two types of rhythmic-enhanced sentences on scripted-sentence learning: word-stress aligned beats, which should support lexical retrieval, and metronomic beats, which should enhance memorization via chunking. In addition, identifying individual characteristics associated with scripted sentence learning can improve treatment personalization. Therefore, aim 2 examined behavioral characteristics (language, attention, and rhythmic processing) and cortical tracking (the coupling of neural oscillations and rhythmic speech properties) and their association with scripted-sentence learning. Fourteen Spanish-speaking PWA participated in a five-session learning paradigm using three conditions: word-stress aligned, metronomic, and control (no beats). Aim 1 analyses showed significant improvements over time across conditions, demonstrating successful scripted-sentence learning. Rhythmic-enhanced conditions engendered greater learning compared to the control condition, indicating that rhythmic features of speech entrainment are a key active ingredient for learning scripted sentences. The two rhythmic-enhanced conditions did not differ over time in terms of learning response, suggesting that both rhythmic manipulations may facilitate scripted-sentence learning. In aim 2 analyses, participants with more severe aphasia showed higher scripted-sentence learning estimates given that they started at a lower learning intercept and benefited more from the support that speech entrainment provides when learning highly formulaic language. More severely impaired PWA also showed lower cortical tracking, indicating lower perception of rhythmic speech properties. Lastly, attentional deficits and most rhythmic processing measures were not strongly associated with scripted-sentence learning. Finally, this is the first study to examine scripted-sentence learning in Spanish-speaking PWA, demonstrating cross-linguistic benefits of script training interventions

L’USO DELLA MUSICA VOCALE NELLA DIDATTICA DELLE LINGUE STRANIERE A PARTIRE DALLA PRIMA INFANZIA

Qual è il rapporto tra musica e linguaggio? La musica può davvero essere considerata un linguaggio universale? Nel tentativo di fornire una risposta a questi quesiti il lavoro analizza, con un approccio comparativo, i meccanismi di funzionamento e le categorie che contraddistinguono l'ambito linguistico e quello musicale, mettendone in luce i punti di contatto e le differenze, e indagando altresì il legame tra i due ambiti dal punto di vista delle neuroscienze. La trattazione approfondisce poi il ruolo svolto dalla memoria e dalla ripetizione nel processo di apprendimento, prendendo a modello due metodologie di didattica per l’infanzia in ambito musicale (il metodo Suzuki e il Children’s music laboratory), per evidenziare come ritmo e melodia, abbinati all’aspetto prosodico e rimico del linguaggio e supportati eventualmente dalla gestualità, possano rivelarsi strumenti assai efficaci per accelerare il processo di memorizzazione e rendere più stabile e duratura la permanenza nella memoria delle informazioni apprese. Proprio relativamente al ruolo svolto dal ritmo, dalla melodia e dalla gestualità, sono presentati e analizzati i capisaldi del pensiero di Marcel Jousse e della sua antropologia del gesto. Infine, a dimostrazione di come l’utilizzo della musica abbinata alla vocalità possa rivelarsi un mezzo estremamente utile per lo sviluppo di una metodologia didattica volta all’insegnamento delle lingue straniere (LS o L2) a partire dalla prima infanzia, vengono proposti diversi esempi pratici di canzoni abbinate a testi in lingua, finalizzate all’apprendimento di lessico, regole grammaticali, corretta pronuncia, ecc

Perceptual strategies underlying second language acquisition

The literature suggests that listeners do not pay equal attention to all available acoustic information. Instead, when perceiving speech, they place more importance on some acoustic cues than others (Francis & Nusbaum, 2002). The patterns of weights assigned to different cues appear to change with increased linguistic experience, not only in the first language (L1; Mayo et al., 2003) but also in the second language (L2; Chandrasekaran et al., 2010). However, the role of attention and salience in cue weighting is still under discussion. This thesis presents a series of experiments designed to test this hypothesis in the context of native English speakers and Mandarin Chinese learners of English. First, we compared how prior experience (language background, musical training, and their interaction) shapes cue weighting strategies and tested whether the cue weighting of different cues reflects the direction of attention towards them or their salience. Compared to English speakers, Mandarin speakers showed enhanced attention to and preferential use of pitch across tasks but no increased pitch salience. Effects of musical training were contingent upon participants’ L1. We also demonstrated that perceptual strategies are not consistent across tasks, suggesting they are not driven by domain-general abilities. Second, since acoustic cues play different roles across languages, learning a new language might require listeners to make greater use of L1-irrelevant dimensions. We designed a targeted training focused on redirecting listeners’ attention towards an L2-relevant acoustic cue. Although the observed training effects were not long-lasting, we showed that perceptual strategies in categorizing L2 prosody could be adjusted with as little as three hours of training. This finding has the potential to inform the development of L2 learning paradigms targeting specific auditory challenges experienced by learners. Overall, this thesis provides novel insights into the long-debated role of dimension-selective attention and dimensional salience in cue weighting