Scatter plots illustrating the correspondence between expertise and behavioral measures of musical pitch ability

<p>. (A) Musical training predicts easy and difficult melody discrimination performance (left and middle panels) as well as pitch memory ability (right panel). Positive associations indicate that recall and sensitivity for pitch patterns is sharpened with continued musical training. (B) English as a Second Language (ESL) age predicts Cantonese speakers’ pitch and melody discrimination performance (left and middle panels, respectively). ESL age is associated with the percentage of L1 daily use (right panel) such that late bilinguals (i.e., higher ESL age) continue to use their native Cantonese on a more regular basis than early onset bilinguals. As with musical training, extended experience with linguistic pitch appears to improve music perception ability. Open circles denote points deemed influential observations via Cook’s D <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0060676#pone.0060676-Cook1" target="_blank">[90]</a> excluded from the regression analyses prior to least squares fitting. Stars denote uncorrected significance levels: *<i>p</i>< 0.05, **<i>p</i>< 0.01, ***<i>p</i>< 0.001. Note that given three tests per group (C, M), a Bonferroni corrected family-wise error rate of <i>α</i>  =  0.05 would require <i>p</i>< 0.0167.</p

Group comparison of musical melody discrimination

<p>. (A) Sensitivity (<i>d′</i>) for discriminating melodies differing by ½ semitone. A systematic gradient is observed in performance across groups (M > C > NM). The fact that Cantonese participants outperform nonmusicians suggests that tone-language speakers have behavioral advantages in musical pitch perception. (B) Discrimination sensitivity for melodies differing by ¼ semitone. Musicians showed superior discrimination relative to Cantonese and nonmusicians; no group differences were found between C and NM in this difficult condition.</p

Group performance on basic psychoacoustic measures of auditory processing

<p>. (A) Fundamental frequency difference limens (F0 DLs) measure the smallest change in pitch listeners can reliably detect. (B) Pitch speed measures listeners’ temporal threshold for resolving directional changes in pitch. For both metrics, smaller values represent better performance. Pitch discrimination and speed of processing are markedly better in both musician and Cantonese-speaking participants indicating that both musical and linguistic pitch experience are associated with improvements in basic auditory acuity. No differences were observed between M and C. (C) Behavioral sensitivity (bars) and reaction time (lines) in recalling whether or not a single probe tone had occurred in the preceding tonally ambiguous melody. Relative to Cantonese-speaking listeners and nonmusician controls, musicians showed superior ability in both memory accuracy and speed of recall. Cantonese outperformed nonmusicians in accuracy but also suffered a time-accuracy tradeoff as indicated by their slower reaction times.</p

Group performance on measures of general cognitive ability

<p>. (A) Nonverbal fluid intelligence as measured by Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. Dotted line denotes chance performance. (B) Spatial working memory span as measured by Corsi blocks. No group differences were observed for general intelligence but musicians showed better performance in working memory capacity as indicated by their larger memory span length relative to C and NM. Here and throughout, error bars  =  s.e.m., *<i>p</i>< 0.05, **<i>p</i>< 0.01, ***<i>p</i>< 0.001, M: Musicians, C: Cantonese, NM: English-speaking nonmusicians.</p

Correlations between perceptual and cognitive abilities

<p>. Cells of each matrix represent the correlation coefficient (Pearson’s <i>r</i>) between pairs of tasks where the color denotes the magnitude of correspondence. Warmer colors denote positive associations; cooler colors denote negative associations. Correlations are threshold at <i>p</i> < 0.05 (uncorrected) such that only significant cells are visible. Starred cells denote correlations surviving correction for multiple comparisons using a false discovery rate of <i>α</i>  =  0.05 <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0060676#pone.0060676-Benjamini1" target="_blank">[89]</a>.</p

Grand average waveforms from go and nogo trials for bilinguals, musicians, and controls; representing the differences between groups on P2, N2 and LP waveforms at Fz, Cz, Pz and CPz.

<p>Grand average waveforms from go and nogo trials for bilinguals, musicians, and controls; representing the differences between groups on P2, N2 and LP waveforms at Fz, Cz, Pz and CPz.</p

Topographic maps of ERP waveforms (P2, N2 and LP) from the nogo condition across musicians, controls and bilinguals.

<p>Each gradient represents a change of approximately 0.5 µV.</p

Mean percentage accuracy (and standard error) and response time (and standard error) for go and nogo trials.

<p>Mean percentage accuracy (and standard error) and response time (and standard error) for go and nogo trials.</p

Mean peak amplitude (P2) and average amplitudes (N2, P3, LP) for each group.

<p>Standard errors are shown in brackets.</p

Sex differences in <i>RSP</i> (example left frontal channel).

<p><b>(A)</b> Mean <i>RSP</i> curves for males and females during Solo2-concentrate condition. <b>(B)</b> Sex effect across all guided conditions. Top: mean participant scores with error bars representing 95% CI. Bottom: associated frequency pattern, represented with bootstrap ratios across conditions. Reliable positive bootstrap indicated by red (blue) circles identify frequencies (35–45 Hz) where females have more power compared to males. Weak trend by which males exhibit more power alpha range (blue bootstrap ratios) is not consistently reliable across conditions.</p