The Effect of Background Music on Cognitive Performance in Musicians and Nonmusicians

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy L. M. Patston ◽  
Lynette J. Tippett
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Piano Music ◽  
Background Music ◽  
Visuospatial Task ◽  
Comprehension Task ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
The Brain

there is debate about the extent of overlap between music and language processing in the brain and whether these processes are functionally independent in expert musicians. A language comprehension task and a visuospatial search task were administered to 36 expert musicians and 36 matched nonmusicians in conditions of silence and piano music played correctly and incorrectly. Musicians performed more poorly on the language comprehension task in the presence of background music compared to silence, but there was no effect of background music on the musicians' performance on the visuospatial task. In contrast, the performance of nonmusicians was not affected by music on either task. The findings challenge the view that music and language are functionally independent in expert musicians, and instead suggest that when musicians process music they recruit a network that overlaps with the network used in language processing. Additionally, musicians outperformed nonmusicians on both tasks, reflecting either a general cognitive advantage in musicians or enhancement of more specific cognitive abilities such as processing speed or executive functioning.

The Effect of Familiarity on Neural Representations of Music and Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Avital Sternin ◽  
Lucy M. McGarry ◽  
Adrian M. Owen ◽  
Jessica A. Grahn
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Training Period ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Musical Memory ◽  
The Brain

Abstract We investigated how familiarity alters music and language processing in the brain. We used fMRI to measure brain responses before and after participants were familiarized with novel music and language stimuli. To manipulate the presence of language and music in the stimuli, there were four conditions: (1) whole music (music and words together), (2) instrumental music (no words), (3) a capella music (sung words, no instruments), and (4) spoken words. To manipulate participants' familiarity with the stimuli, we used novel stimuli and a familiarization paradigm designed to mimic “natural” exposure, while controlling for autobiographical memory confounds. Participants completed two fMRI scans that were separated by a stimulus training period. Behaviorally, participants learned the stimuli over the training period. However, there were no significant neural differences between the familiar and unfamiliar stimuli in either univariate or multivariate analyses. There were differences in neural activity in frontal and temporal regions based on the presence of language in the stimuli, and these differences replicated across the two scanning sessions. These results indicate that the way we engage with music is important for creating a memory of that music, and these aspects, over and above familiarity on its own, may be responsible for the robust nature of musical memory in the presence of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

scholarly journals Singing in the Brain: Insights from Cognitive Neuropsychology

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISABELLE PERETZ ◽  
LISE GAGNON ◽  
SYLVIE HÉÉBERT ◽  
JOËËL MACOIR
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Cognitive Neuropsychology ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
Musical Production ◽  
Output System ◽  
Verbal Production ◽  
Language Output ◽  
The Brain

Singing abilities are rarely examined despite the fact that their study represents one of the richest sources of information regarding how music is processed in the brain. In particular, the analysis of singing performance in brain-damaged patients provides key information regarding the autonomy of music processing relative to language processing. Here, we review the relevant literature, mostly on the perception and memory of text and tunes in songs, and we illustrate how lyrics can be distinguished from melody in singing, in the case of brain damage. We report a new case, G.D., who has a severe speech disorder,marked by phonemic errors and stuttering, without a concomitant musical production disorder. G.D. was found to produce as few intelligible words in speaking as in singing familiar songs. Singing ““la, la, la”” was intact and hence could not account for the speech deficit observed in singing. The results indicate that verbal production, be it sung or spoken, is mediated by the same (impaired) language output system and that this speech route is distinct from the (spared) melodic route. In sum, we provide here further evidence that the autonomy of music and language processing extends to production tasks.

scholarly journals Pragmatic Language Processing in the Adolescent Brain

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salomi S. Asaridou ◽  
Ö. Ece Demir-Lira ◽  
Julia Uddén ◽  
Susan Goldin-Meadow ◽  
Steven L. Small
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Pragmatic Language ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Preceding Question

Adolescence is a developmental period in which social interactions become increasingly important. Successful social interactions rely heavily on pragmatic competence, the appropriate use of language in different social contexts, a skill that is still developing in adolescence. In the present study, we used fMRI to characterize the brain networks underlying pragmatic language processing in typically developing adolescents. We used an indirect speech paradigm whereby participants were presented with question/answer dialogues in which the meaning of the answer had to be inferred from the context, in this case the preceding question. Participants were presented with three types of answers: (1) direct replies, i.e., simple answers to open-ended questions, (2) indirect informative replies, i.e., answers in which the speaker’s intention was to add more information to a yes/no question, and (3) indirect affective replies, i.e., answers in which the speaker’s intention was to express polite refusals, negative opinions or to save face in response to an emotionally charged question. We found that indirect affective replies elicited the strongest response in brain areas associated with language comprehension (superior temporal gyri), theory of mind (medial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal junction, and precuneus), and attention/working memory (inferior frontal gyri). The increased activation to indirect affective as opposed to indirect informative and direct replies potentially reflects the high salience of opinions and perspectives of others in adolescence. Our results add to previous findings on socio-cognitive processing in adolescents and extend them to pragmatic language comprehension.

Language Comprehension and Emotion

2019 ◽  
pp. 735-766
Author(s):  
Jos J. A. van Berkum
Keyword(s):  
Computational Complexity ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Language Interpretation ◽  
The Brain

When you hear somebody speak, or read a bit of text, you are somehow assigning meaning to an unfolding sequence of signs. Because of the representational and computational complexity involved, this process of language interpretation is considered to be one of the major feats of human cognition. However, you also happen to be just another mammal, and as such, you are biologically predisposed to have emotions, evaluations, and moods (i.e. to feel certain things about your environment). How do these two acts of assigning meaning relate to one another? And what are the implications for neurolinguistics, the endeavor to understand how the brain realizes language use? After examining why emotion is not naturally foregrounded in language processing research, this chapter reviews some basic insights in emotion science, discusses a processing model of affective language comprehension, and explores how the model can contribute to neurolinguistics and other fields.

scholarly journals Before and below ‘theory of mind’: embodied simulation and the neural correlates of social cognition

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1480) ◽  
pp. 659-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittorio Gallese
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Embodied Simulation ◽  
Automatic Translation ◽  
The Brain

The automatic translation of folk psychology into newly formed brain modules specifically dedicated to mind-reading and other social cognitive abilities should be carefully scrutinized. Searching for the brain location of intentions, beliefs and desires— as such —might not be the best epistemic strategy to disclose what social cognition really is. The results of neurocognitive research suggest that in the brain of primates, mirror neurons, and more generally the premotor system, play a major role in several aspects of social cognition, from action and intention understanding to language processing. This evidence is presented and discussed within the theoretical frame of an embodied simulation account of social cognition. Embodied simulation and the mirror neuron system underpinning it provide the means to share communicative intentions, meaning and reference, thus granting the parity requirements of social communication.

scholarly journals Language and the Brain: A Twofold Study of Language Production and Language Comprehension as a Separate or Integrated Set of Processes

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 82-90
Author(s):  
Anokye Bernice
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Inner Voice ◽  
Linguistic Rules ◽  
Underlying Basis ◽  
The Brain

Humans can understand their language due to the processes in the brain. It is very easy for language users to presume that language production and language comprehension are two simple phenomena. For psycholinguistics, these two processes are part of the three core topics in the study of the language and the mind. Psycholinguistics attempt to have a model that explains how language is processed in our brain. It is nearly impossible to do or think about anything without using language, whether this entails following a set of written instructions or an internal talk-through by your inner voice. Language permeates our brains and our lives like no other skill. Beforehand, psycholinguists described our comprehension and production of language in terms of the rules that were hypothesized by linguists (Fodor, Bever, & Garrett, 1974). Now, that is not the case. These linguistic rules inform rather than taking precedent in studying language and the brain. This paper aims to describe the brain regions/structures, language processes, and the intricate connections between them. The study discusses the brain as the underlying basis of the relationship between language and the brain. Moreover, this study descriptively analyses some of the recent expositive psycholinguistic research on language production and comprehension in order to understand the nature and dynamics of language. The methodology of this paper has to do with the research design, materials and concludes with descriptive analyses of the major finding from the secondary data reviewed in the paper. The linguistic approaches used for this study do not entail any sort of calculation or enumeration. It takes the form of a descriptive qualitative approach or a desktop study where research work mainly capitalizes on preexisting literature in the research domain. The study's main finding reveals that research works on language processing treat production and comprehension as quite distinct from each other. Language production processes differ fundamentally from comprehension processes in many respects. However, other researchers reject such a dichotomy. In its place, they propose that producing and understanding are tightly interwoven, and this interweaving underlies people’s ability to predict themselves and each other.

scholarly journals S167. THE EFFECT OF THE CATECHOL-O-METHYLTRANSFERASE VAL153MET POLYMORPHISM ON TEMPORAL INTERHEMISPHERIC CONNECTIVITY AND LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S100-S100
Author(s):  
Sung Eun Kim ◽  
Kang Soo Lee ◽  
Jeong Hoon Kim ◽  
Minji Bang ◽  
Sang-Hyuk Lee
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Verbal Comprehension ◽  
Temporal Lobes ◽  
Interhemispheric Connectivity ◽  
Sum Scores ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Background Difficulties in language comprehension is the major psychopathology in schizophrenia. The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val153Met polymorphism, a candidate gene related to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, is associated with higher cognitive abilities including language comprehension. At the brain level, this function is known to be supported by reciprocal communication via transcallosal projections between the temporal regions. This study investigated the effect of the COMT Val153Met polymorphism on white matter (WM) integrity of the tapetum, which connects the bilateral temporal lobes, and language comprehension in patients with schizophrenia. Methods Ninety patients with schizophrenia participated in this study. The COMT Val153Met polymorphism was analyzed, and the genotype groups were divided into Val-allele homozygotes and Met-allele carriers (45 participants in each group). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were acquired from all participants. Fractional anisotropy (FA) values were extracted from the bilateral tapetum. The levels of language comprehension were measured using verbal comprehension subtests of the Korean version of WAIS. Results Val-allele homozygotes showed higher FAs in left tapetum than Met-allele carriers (mean ± SD: val-allele homozygotes = 0.809 ± 0.059, Met-allele carriers = 0.777 ± 0.079; t = 2.16, p = 0.034). The right tapetum FAs were not different between two groups. (mean ± SD: val-allele homozygotes = 0.772 ± 0.065, Met-allele carriers = 0.748 ± 0.061; t = 1.83, p = 0.071). Although the sum of verbal comprehension subtest scores did not differ between two groups, only Val-allele homozygotes showed a negative correlation between the sum scores and left tapetum FAs (val-allele homozygotes: r = -0.426, p = 0.021, Met-allele carriers: r = -0.193, p = 0.275). Discussion This study suggests that the COMT Val153Met polymorphism may be associated with structural changes in interhemispheric WM tracts connecting the temporal regions. Furthermore, COMT-associated WM changes may contribute to individual variations in language comprehension of patients with schizophrenia, particularly Val-allele homozygotes. We expect that our findings provide some clues for understanding the interaction between the brain and genes in patients with schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Neural evidence for representationally specific prediction in language processing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Wang ◽  
Gina Kuperberg ◽  
Ole Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Temporal Region ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽  
Final Word ◽  
Specific Prediction ◽  
The Brain

AbstractPrevious studies suggest that people generate predictions during language comprehension at multiple linguistic levels. It has been hypothesized that, under some circumstances, this can result in the pre-activation of specific lexico-semantic representations. We asked whether such representationally specific semantic pre-activation can be detected in the brain ahead of encountering bottom-up input. We measured MEG activity as participants read highly constraining sentences in which the final word could be predicted. We found that both spatial and temporal patterns of the brain activity prior to the onset of this word were more similar when the same words were predicted than when different words were predicted. This pre-activation was transient and engaged a left inferior and medial temporal region. These results suggest that unique spatial patterns of neural activity associated with the pre-activation of distributed semantic representations can be detected prior to the appearance of new sensory input, and that the left inferior and medial temporal regions may play a role in temporally binding such representations, giving rise to specific lexico-semantic predictions.

The Opposition of Surprisal and Semantic Similarity in the Prediction of Language Processing: Evidence from Eye-tracking Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Dynamic Approach

Expectations or predictions about upcoming content play an important role during language comprehension and processing. One important aspect of recent studies of language comprehension and processing concerns the estimation of the upcoming words in a sentence or discourse. Many studies have used eye-tracking data to explore computational and cognitive models for contextual word predictions and word processing. Eye-tracking data has previously been widely explored with a view to investigating the factors that influence word prediction. However, these studies are problematic on several levels, including the stimuli, corpora, statistical tools they applied. Although various computational models have been proposed for simulating contextual word predictions, past studies usually preferred to use a single computational model. The disadvantage of this is that it often cannot give an adequate account of cognitive processing in language comprehension. To avoid these problems, this study draws upon a massive natural and coherent discourse as stimuli in collecting the data on reading time. This study trains two state-of-art computational models (surprisal and semantic (dis)similarity from word vectors by linear discriminative learning (LDL)), measuring knowledge of both the syntagmatic and paradigmatic structure of language. We develop a `dynamic approach' to compute semantic (dis)similarity. It is the first time that these two computational models have been merged. Models are evaluated using advanced statistical methods. Meanwhile, in order to test the efficiency of our approach, one recently developed cosine method of computing semantic (dis)similarity based on word vectors data adopted is used to compare with our `dynamic' approach. The two computational and fixed-effect statistical models can be used to cross-verify the findings, thus ensuring that the result is reliable. All results support that surprisal and semantic similarity are opposed in the prediction of the reading time of words although both can make good predictions. Additionally, our `dynamic' approach performs better than the popular cosine method. The findings of this study are therefore of significance with regard to acquiring a better understanding how humans process words in a real-world context and how they make predictions in language cognition and processing.

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