Experience-dependent Enhancement of Linguistic Pitch Representation in the Brainstem Is Not Specific to a Speech Context

Neural representation of pitch is influenced by lifelong experiences with music and language at both cortical and subcortical levels of processing. The aim of this article is to determine whether neural plasticity for pitch representation at the level of the brainstem is dependent upon specific dimensions of pitch contours that commonly occur as part of a native listener's language experience. Brainstem frequency following responses (FFRs) were recorded from Chinese and English participants in response to four Mandarin tonal contours presented in a nonspeech context in the form of iterated rippled noise. Pitch strength (whole contour, 250 msec; 40-msec segments) and pitch-tracking accuracy (whole contour) were extracted from the FFRs using autocorrelation algorithms. Narrow band spectrograms were used to extract spectral information. Results showed that the Chinese group exhibits smoother pitch tracking than the English group in three out of the four tones. Moreover, cross-language comparisons of pitch strength of 40-msec segments revealed that the Chinese group exhibits more robust pitch representation of those segments containing rapidly changing pitch movements across all four tones. FFR spectral data were complementary showing that the Chinese group exhibits stronger representation of multiple pitch-relevant harmonics relative to the English group across all four tones. These findings support the view that at early preattentive stages of subcortical processing, neural mechanisms underlying pitch representation are shaped by particular dimensions of the auditory stream rather than speech per se. Adopting a temporal correlation analysis scheme for pitch encoding, we propose that long-term experience sharpens the tuning characteristics of neurons along the pitch axis with enhanced sensitivity to linguistically relevant variations in pitch.

Download Full-text

Cross-domain Effects of Music and Language Experience on the Representation of Pitch in the Human Auditory Brainstem

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21362 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 425-434 ◽

Cited By ~ 156

Author(s):

Gavin M. Bidelman ◽

Jackson T. Gandour ◽

Ananthanarayan Krishnan

Keyword(s):

Neural Plasticity ◽

Auditory Brainstem ◽

Tracking Accuracy ◽

Language Experience ◽

Musical Note ◽

Pitch Interval ◽

Musical Scale ◽

Pitch Tracking ◽

Music And Language ◽

Pitch Patterns

Neural encoding of pitch in the auditory brainstem is known to be shaped by long-term experience with language or music, implying that early sensory processing is subject to experience-dependent neural plasticity. In language, pitch patterns consist of sequences of continuous, curvilinear contours; in music, pitch patterns consist of relatively discrete, stair-stepped sequences of notes. The primary aim was to determine the influence of domain-specific experience (language vs. music) on the encoding of pitch in the brainstem. Frequency-following responses were recorded from the brainstem in native Chinese, English amateur musicians, and English nonmusicians in response to iterated rippled noise homologues of a musical pitch interval (major third; M3) and a lexical tone (Mandarin tone 2; T2) from the music and language domains, respectively. Pitch-tracking accuracy (whole contour) and pitch strength (50 msec sections) were computed from the brainstem responses using autocorrelation algorithms. Pitch-tracking accuracy was higher in the Chinese and musicians than in the nonmusicians across domains. Pitch strength was more robust across sections in musicians than in nonmusicians regardless of domain. In contrast, the Chinese showed larger pitch strength, relative to nonmusicians, only in those sections of T2 with rapid changes in pitch. Interestingly, musicians exhibited greater pitch strength than the Chinese in one section of M3, corresponding to the onset of the second musical note, and two sections within T2, corresponding to a note along the diatonic musical scale. We infer that experience-dependent plasticity of brainstem responses is shaped by the relative saliency of acoustic dimensions underlying the pitch patterns associated with a particular domain.

Download Full-text

Language experience during the sensitive period narrows infants’ sensory speech encoding----music intervention reverse it

10.31219/osf.io/y367x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

T. Christina Zhao ◽

Fernando Llanos ◽

Bharath Chandrasekaran ◽

Patricia K. Kuhl

Keyword(s):

Speech Processing ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Auditory Pathway ◽

Sensitive Period ◽

Music Intervention ◽

Tracking Accuracy ◽

Language Experience ◽

Pitch Tracking ◽

Speech Encoding ◽

Sensory Encoding

The sensitive period for phonetic learning (6~12 months), evidenced by increases in native and declines in nonnative speech processing, represents an early milestone in language acquisition. We examined the extent that sensory encoding of speech is altered by experience during this period by testing two hypotheses: 1) early sensory encoding of nonnative speech declines as infants gain native-language experience, and 2) music intervention reverses this decline. We longitudinally measured the frequency-following response (FFR), a robust indicator of early sensory encoding along the auditory pathway, to a Mandarin lexical tone in 7- and 11-months-old monolingual English-learning infants. Infants received music intervention (music-intervention group) or no intervention (language-experience group) randomly between FFR recordings. The language-experience group exhibited the expected decline in FFR pitch-tracking accuracy to the Mandarin tone while the music-intervention group did not. Our results support both hypotheses and demonstrate that both language and music experience alter infants’ speech encoding.

Download Full-text

Design and Kinematic Evaluation of a Novel Joint-Specific Play Controller: Application for Wrist and Forearm Therapy

Physical Therapy ◽

10.2522/ptj.20140344 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 95 (7) ◽

pp. 1061-1066 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Joseph J. Crisco ◽

Joel B. Schwartz ◽

Bethany Wilcox ◽

Laura Costa ◽

Karen Kerman

Keyword(s):

Neural Plasticity ◽

Exercise Program ◽

Computer Game ◽

Health Benefit ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Wrist Flexion ◽

Tracking Accuracy ◽

Wide Range ◽

Flexion Extension ◽

Kinematic Evaluation

Background The wrist extensors and flexors are profoundly affected in most children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy (CP) and are the major target of physical therapists' and occupational therapists' efforts to restore useful hand functions. A limitation of any therapeutic or exercise program can be the level of the child's engagement or adherence. The proposed approach capitalizes on the primary learning avenue for children: toy play. Objective This study aimed to develop and evaluate the measurement accuracy of innovative, motion-specific play controllers that are engaging rehabilitative devices for enhancing therapy and promoting neural plasticity and functional recovery in children with CP. Design Design objectives of the play controller included a cost-effective, home-based supplement to physical therapy, the ability to calibrate the controller so that play can be accomplished with any active range of motion, and the capability of logging play activity and wrist motion over week-long periods. Methods Accuracy of the play controller in measuring wrist flexion-extension was evaluated in 6 children who were developing in a typical manner, using optical motion capture of the wrist and forearm as the gold standard. Results The error of the play controller was estimated at approximately 5 degrees in both maximum wrist flexion and extension. Limitations Measurements were taken during a laboratory session, with children without CP, and no toy or computer game was interfaced with the play controller. Therefore, the potential engagement of the proposed approach for therapy remains to be evaluated. Conclusions This study presented the concept, development, and wrist tracking accuracy of an inexpensive approach to extremity therapy that may have a health benefit for children with hemiparesis, and potentially for patients of any age with a wide range of extremity neuromotor impairments.

Download Full-text

Unsupervised changes in core object recognition behavior are predicted by neural plasticity in inferior temporal cortex

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.60830 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Xiaoxuan Jia ◽

Ha Hong ◽

Jim DiCarlo

Keyword(s):

Object Recognition ◽

Neural Plasticity ◽

Time Course ◽

Human Performance ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Temporal Contiguity ◽

Inferior Temporal Cortex ◽

Object Identity ◽

Visual Stream

Temporal continuity of object identity is a feature of natural visual input, and is potentially exploited -- in an unsupervised manner -- by the ventral visual stream to build the neural representation in inferior temporal (IT) cortex. Here we investigated whether plasticity of individual IT neurons underlies human core-object-recognition behavioral changes induced with unsupervised visual experience. We built a single-neuron plasticity model combined with a previously established IT population-to-recognition-behavior linking model to predict human learning effects. We found that our model, after constrained by neurophysiological data, largely predicted the mean direction, magnitude and time course of human performance changes. We also found a previously unreported dependency of the observed human performance change on the initial task difficulty. This result adds support to the hypothesis that tolerant core object recognition in human and non-human primates is instructed -- at least in part -- by naturally occurring unsupervised temporal contiguity experience.

Download Full-text

Tone language experience enhances sensitivity to melodic contour

LSA Annual Meeting Extended Abstracts ◽

10.3765/exabs.v0i0.612 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 40 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Evan David Bradley

Keyword(s):

Learning Theories ◽

Pitch Height ◽

Discrimination Test ◽

Language Experience ◽

Tone Language ◽

Lexical Tones ◽

Enhanced Sensitivity ◽

Melodic Contour ◽

Melody Perception ◽

English Speaking

Lexical tones are perceived along several dimensions, including pitch height, direction, and slope. Melody is also factored into several dimensions, key, contour, and interval, argued to correspond to phonetic dimensions. Tone speakers are expected to possess enhanced sensitivity to musical properties corresponding to properties of their tonal inventories. Mandarin- and English-speaking non-musicians took a melody discrimination test. Mandarin listeners more accurately discriminated melodic contour and interval, corresponding to relevant Mandarin tonal properties direction and slope. Groups performed similarly on other dimensions, indicating that tone language experience causes specific, rather than general, melody perception improvement, consistent with neural and perceptual learning theories.

Download Full-text

CROSSLINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES IN IMPLICIT LANGUAGE LEARNING

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263114000333 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 36 (4) ◽

pp. 733-755 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Janny H. C. Leung ◽

John N. Williams

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

English Word ◽

Linguistic Knowledge ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Language Knowledge ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

English Group ◽

Chinese Group

We report three experiments that explore the effect of prior linguistic knowledge on implicit language learning. Native speakers of English from the United Kingdom and native speakers of Cantonese from Hong Kong participated in experiments that involved different learning materials. In Experiment 1, both participant groups showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and noun animacy. In Experiment 2, neither group showed learning of a mapping between articles and a linguistically anomalous concept (the number of capital letters in an English word or that of strokes in a Chinese character). In Experiment 3, the Chinese group, but not the English group, showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and a concept derived from the Chinese classifier system. It was concluded that first language knowledge affected implicit language learning and that implicit learning, at least when natural language learning is concerned, is subject to constraints and biases.

Download Full-text

Plasticity in the Adult Human Auditory Brainstem following Short-term Linguistic Training

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2008.20131 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 20 (10) ◽

pp. 1892-1902 ◽

Cited By ~ 175

Author(s):

Judy H. Song ◽

Erika Skoe ◽

Patrick C. M. Wong ◽

Nina Kraus

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Auditory Pathway ◽

Auditory Brainstem ◽

Pitch Contour ◽

Tracking Accuracy ◽

Subcortical Structures ◽

Complex Sounds ◽

Pitch Tracking ◽

English Speaking ◽

Pitch Patterns

Peripheral and central structures along the auditory pathway contribute to speech processing and learning. However, because speech requires the use of functionally and acoustically complex sounds which necessitates high sensory and cognitive demands, long-term exposure and experience using these sounds is often attributed to the neocortex with little emphasis placed on subcortical structures. The present study examines changes in the auditory brainstem, specifically the frequency following response (FFR), as native English-speaking adults learn to incorporate foreign speech sounds (lexical pitch patterns) in word identification. The FFR presumably originates from the auditory midbrain and can be elicited preattentively. We measured FFRs to the trained pitch patterns before and after training. Measures of pitch tracking were then derived from the FFR signals. We found increased accuracy in pitch tracking after training, including a decrease in the number of pitch-tracking errors and a refinement in the energy devoted to encoding pitch. Most interestingly, this change in pitch-tracking accuracy only occurred in the most acoustically complex pitch contour (dipping contour), which is also the least familiar to our English-speaking subjects. These results not only demonstrate the contribution of the brainstem in language learning and its plasticity in adulthood but also demonstrate the specificity of this contribution (i.e., changes in encoding only occur in specific, least familiar stimuli, not all stimuli). Our findings complement existing data showing cortical changes after second-language learning, and are consistent with models suggesting that brainstem changes resulting from perceptual learning are most apparent when acuity in encoding is most needed.

Download Full-text

Redefining bilingualism as a spectrum of experiences that differentially affects brain structure and function

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1811513116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (15) ◽

pp. 7565-7574 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

Vincent DeLuca ◽

Jason Rothman ◽

Ellen Bialystok ◽

Christos Pliatsikas

Keyword(s):

Neural Plasticity ◽

Brain Structure ◽

Structure And Function ◽

Combined Effects ◽

Language Experience ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Social Settings ◽

Brain Structure And Function ◽

And Function ◽

The Brain

Learning and using an additional language is shown to have an impact on the structure and function of the brain, including in regions involved in cognitive control and the connections between them. However, the available evidence remains variable in terms of the localization, extent, and trajectory of these effects. Variability likely stems from the fact that bilingualism has been routinely operationalized as a categorical variable (bilingual/monolingual), whereas it is a complex and dynamic experience with a number of potentially deterministic factors affecting neural plasticity. Here we present a study investigating the combined effects of experience-based factors (EBFs) in bilingual language use on brain structure and functional connectivity. EBFs include an array of measures of everyday usage of a second language in different types of immersive settings (e.g., amount of use in social settings). Analyses reveal specific adaptations in the brain, both structural and functional, correlated to individual EBFs and their combined effects. Taken together, the data show that the brain adapts to be maximally efficient in the processing and control of two languages, although modulated ultimately by individual language experience.

Download Full-text