Musical experience shapes human brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch patterns.

Full Abstract

Music and speech are very cognitively demanding auditory phenomena generally attributed to cortical rather than subcortical circuitry. We examined brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch and found that musicians show more robust and faithful encoding compared with nonmusicians. These results not only implicate a common subcortical manifestation for two presumed cortical functions, but also a possible reciprocity of corticofugal speech and music tuning, providing neurophysiological explanations for musicians' higher language-learning ability.

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Author information

Author/s: Wong, Patrick C M (PC); Skoe, Erika (E); Russo, Nicole M (NM); Dees, Tasha (T); Kraus, Nina (N);

Affiliation: The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3540, USA. pwong(-atsign-)northwestern.edu

Grants: R01DC001510 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS) ; R03HD051827 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; R21DC007468 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Nature neuroscience (Nat Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Apr; vol 10 (issue 4) : pp 420-2

Dates: Created 2007/03/27; Completed 2007/06/26; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 17351633, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation - methods
Brain Mapping
Brain Stem - physiology
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology
Female
Humans
Linguistics

Linguistics
Male
Music
Occupations
Pitch Discrimination - physiology
Pitch Perception - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Time Factors

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