Perception of Music and Speech Prosody After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

The present study aimed to examine the perception of music and prosody in patients who had undergone a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Our second objective was to describe the association between music and prosody impairments in clinical individual presentations. Thirty-six patients who were out of the acute phase underwent a set of music and prosody tests: two subtests of the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia evaluating respectively melody (scale) and rhythm perception, two subtests of the Montreal Evaluation of Communication on prosody understanding in sentences, and two other tests evaluating prosody understanding in vowels. Forty-two percent of the patients were impaired in the melodic test, 51% were impaired in the rhythmic test, and 71% were impaired in at least one of the four prosody tests. The amusic patients performed significantly worse than non-amusics on the four prosody tests. This descriptive study shows for the first time the high prevalence of music deficits after severe TBI. It also suggests associations between prosody and music impairments, as well as between linguistic and emotional prosody impairments. Causes of these impairments remain to be explored.

The Role of Parents in Training Deaf Children

The purpose of this study is to find out how parents play in training the speech of deaf children. The research method used is qualitative with library research, namely a series of studies related to library data collection methods, or research objects whose research objects are excavated through various library information (books, encyclopedias, scientific journals, newspapers, magazines, and documents). The results showed that parents have tried to train their children by getting used to talking continuously during learning from home using props and motivating the child to learn. Parents and teachers work together and consult on how to practice speech. The development of sound and rhythm perception communication is a program that is carried out to train the ability of deaf children. But at the time of the covid-19 pandemic parents became special companions as well as teachers while at home to train their children to speak the language daily in addition to being helped through listening aids guided by their teachers.

Supplementary motor area contributions to rhythm perception

Timing is everything, but our understanding of the neural mechanisms of timing remains limited, particularly for timing of sequences. Temporal sequences can be represented relative to a recurrent beat (beat-based or relative timing), or as a series of absolute durations (non-beat-based or absolute timing). Neuroimaging work suggests involvement of the basal ganglia, supplementary motor area (SMA), the premotor cortices, and the cerebellum in both beat- and non-beat-based timing. Here we examined how beat-based timing and non-beat-based sequence timing were affected by modulating excitability of the supplementary motor area, the right cerebellum, and the bilateral dorsal premotor cortices, using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants were subjected to a sham stimulation session, followed an active stimulation session where anodal or cathodal 2mA tDCS was applied to the SMA, right premotor cortex, left premotor cortex, or the cerebellum. During both sessions, participants discriminated changes in rhythms which differentially engage beat-based or non-beat-based timing. Rhythm discrimination performance was improved by increasing SMA excitability, and impaired by decreasing SMA excitability. This polarity-dependent effect on rhythm discrimination was absent for cerebellar or premotor cortex stimulation, suggesting a crucial role of the SMA and/or its functionally connected networks in rhythmic timing mechanisms.

Pitch and Rhythm Perception and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Acute Traumatic Brain Injury

Music perception deficits are common following acquired brain injury due to stroke, epilepsy surgeries, and aneurysmal clipping. Few studies have examined these deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI), resulting in an under-diagnosis in this population. We aimed to (1) compare TBI patients to controls on pitch and rhythm perception during the acute phase; (2) determine whether pitch and rhythm perception disorders co-occur; (3) examine lateralization of injury in the context of pitch and rhythm perception; and (4) determine the relationship between verbal short-term memory (STM) and pitch and rhythm perception. Music perception was examined using the Scale and Rhythm tests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, in association with CT scans to identify lesion laterality. Verbal short-term memory was examined using Digit Span Forward. TBI patients had greater impairment than controls, with 43% demonstrating deficits in pitch perception, and 40% in rhythm perception. Deficits were greater with right hemisphere damage than left. Pitch and rhythm deficits co-occurred 31% of the time, suggesting partly dissociable networks. There was a dissociation between performance on verbal STM and pitch and rhythm perception 39 to 42% of the time (respectively), with most individuals (92%) demonstrating intact verbal STM, with impaired pitch or rhythm perception. The clinical implications of music perception deficits following TBI are discussed.

Rhythmic abilities in humans and non-human animals: a review and recommendations from a methodological perspective

Rhythmic behaviour is ubiquitous in both human and non-human animals, but it is unclear whether the cognitive mechanisms underlying the specific rhythmic behaviours observed in different species are related. Laboratory experiments combined with highly controlled stimuli and tasks can be very effective in probing the cognitive architecture underlying rhythmic abilities. Rhythmic abilities have been examined in the laboratory with explicit and implicit perception tasks, and with production tasks, such as sensorimotor synchronization, with stimuli ranging from isochronous sequences of artificial sounds to human music. Here, we provide an overview of experimental findings on rhythmic abilities in human and non-human animals, while critically considering the wide variety of paradigms used. We identify several gaps in what is known about rhythmic abilities. Many bird species have been tested on rhythm perception, but research on rhythm production abilities in the same birds is lacking. By contrast, research in mammals has primarily focused on rhythm production rather than perception. Many experiments also do not differentiate between possible components of rhythmic abilities, such as processing of single temporal intervals, rhythmic patterns, a regular beat or hierarchical metrical structures. For future research, we suggest a careful choice of paradigm to aid cross-species comparisons, and a critical consideration of the multifaceted abilities that underlie rhythmic behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology’.

Melody, not Beat Perception, Predicts Rhythmic Error Detection

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among beat perception, error detection, and musical experience. We presented monophonic rhythms using a piano timbre along with two measures of beat perception (Harvard Beat Finding and Interval Test [BFIT] and Goldsmiths Beat Alignment Test) and a measure of melodic error detection. College musicians’ ( N = 43) ability to detect rhythm errors was not significantly correlated to their ability to perceive beat alignment (Goldsmiths test) or tempo change (BFIT). Age was related to performance on only one of the measures, the BFIT test. A regression model yielded pitch error detection as the only significant predictor of rhythmic error detection. We suggest that college musicians already possess a requisite ability for beat processing that allows them to perform error detection. The lack of relationship between beat perception and rhythmic error detection is explained by this requisite ability in the population, and we promote future research for pitch and rhythm processing as it relates to rhythm perception or performance.

Vocal learning and flexible rhythm pattern perception are linked: Evidence from songbirds

Rhythm perception is fundamental to speech and music. Humans readily recognize a rhythmic pattern, such as that of a familiar song, independently of the tempo at which it occurs. This shows that our perception of auditory rhythms is flexible, relying on global relational patterns more than on the absolute durations of specific time intervals. Given that auditory rhythm perception in humans engages a complex auditory–motor cortical network even in the absence of movement and that the evolution of vocal learning is accompanied by strengthening of forebrain auditory–motor pathways, we hypothesize that vocal learning species share our perceptual facility for relational rhythm processing. We test this by asking whether the best-studied animal model for vocal learning, the zebra finch, can recognize a fundamental rhythmic pattern—equal timing between event onsets (isochrony)—based on temporal relations between intervals rather than on absolute durations. Prior work suggests that vocal nonlearners (pigeons and rats) are quite limited in this regard and are biased to attend to absolute durations when listening to rhythmic sequences. In contrast, using naturalistic sounds at multiple stimulus rates, we show that male zebra finches robustly recognize isochrony independent of absolute time intervals, even at rates distant from those used in training. Our findings highlight the importance of comparative studies of rhythmic processing and suggest that vocal learning species are promising animal models for key aspects of human rhythm perception. Such models are needed to understand the neural mechanisms behind the positive effect of rhythm on certain speech and movement disorders.

OPTIMALISASI PELAYANAN BINA KOMUNIKASI MELALUI PROGRAM PERSEPSI BUNYI DAN IRAMA (BKPBI), UNTUK ANAK YANG BERKEBUTUHAN KUSUS TUNARUNGGU DI SDLB NEGERI JENANGAN PONOROGO

Children with special needs are children with different characteristics from normal children in general. Especially deaf children are children who have impaired hearing either totally or have residual hearing. Deaf communication requires services that can support their communication difficulties. In this case SDLB Negeri Jenang Ponorogo organized a communication development program with Communication Development through the Sound and Rhythm Perception Program (BKPBI). In this study the author is intended to discuss more about; Forms of service stages, learning implementation strategies and service results of sound and rhythm perception programs in SDLB Negeri Jenang Ponorogo. This research uses a qualitative approach methodology with the type of case study research. The data in this study are words and actions, while the source of the data are the Principal and teachers at SDLB Negeri Jenang. Data collection methods are interviews, observation, and documentation. Data analysis techniques using data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. After conducting the analysis, the writer can conclude that the form of communication service development stages through sound and rhythm perception programs in the Jenang Negeri Extraordinary Elementary School is sound detection, sound discrimination, sound identification, sound comprehension, learning implementation strategies using review, overview, presentation, exercise, and summary, also by using the classical and individual models, while the results of the service program of perception of sound and rhythm in the State Elementary School Extraordinary, namely deaf children are able to recognize sounds, easy to respond to sounds such as background noises, the nature of sounds, creating sounds up to recognize types of musical instruments, able to identify sounds and detect the direction of sound.