Rhythmic priming enhances the phonological processing of speech

While natural speech does not possess the same degree of temporal regularity found in music, there is recent evidence to suggest that temporal regularity enhances speech processing. The aim of this experiment was to examine whether speech processing would be enhanced by the prior presentation of a rhythmical prime. We recorded electrophysiological (EEG) and behavioural (reaction time) data while participants listened to nonsense words preceded by a simple rhythm. Results showed that speech processing was enhanced by the temporal expectations generated by the prime. Interestingly, beat and metrical structure of the prime had an effect on different ERP components elicited by the following word (N100, P300). These results indicate that using a musical-like rhythmic prime matched to the prosodic features of speech enhances phonological processing of spoken words and thus reveal a cross-domain effect of musical rhythm on the processing of speech rhythm.