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Related Experiment Video

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Using the Visual World Paradigm to Study Sentence Comprehension in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Autism

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Musical training modulates the development of syntax processing in children.

Sebastian Jentschke¹, Stefan Koelsch

¹Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Junior Research Group Neurocognition of Music, Stephanstr. 1A, D-04103 Leipzig, German. S.Jentschke@ucl.ac.uk

|May 12, 2009

Summary

Musical training enhances children's brain responses to syntax in both music and language. Children with musical experience show stronger neural markers for processing complex structures, suggesting earlier and more robust development of these cognitive skills.

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Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

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Published on: July 1, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Music Cognition

Background:

Previous studies indicate musical training influences cognitive abilities, but underlying neural mechanisms are sparsely understood.
Syntax processing in language and music shares overlapping neural resources.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare neural correlates of language and music syntax processing in children with and without long-term musical training.
Investigate how musical training affects the development of neurophysiological markers for syntax processing.

Main Methods:

Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to record brain activity.
Compared event-related potentials (ERPs) like the early right anterior negativity (ERAN) and early left anterior negativity (ELAN) in response to syntactic irregularities in music and language.
Participants included children with and without long-term musical training.

Main Results:

Musically trained children exhibited larger amplitudes of the ERAN, associated with music-syntactic irregularities.
The ELAN, a marker for language syntax processing, was more developed in musically trained children.
These children also showed an enlarged amplitude of a later negativity, indicating more sustained syntax processing.

Conclusions:

Musical training appears to enhance the neurophysiological mechanisms for syntax processing in both music and language.
These mechanisms are developed earlier and more strongly in children with musical training.
Findings suggest a transfer of cognitive benefits from musical training to language processing.