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The effects of Music on Language Disabilities
As a musician with many years of training, and a student with language learning impairment, I have a motivating interest in learning about the effects music might have on language development. My late-diagnosed language disability (discovered when I entered high school), consisting of phonological processing, spoken language, and reading disorders (Report of Neuropsychological Evaluation 14). I was fascinated to learn that research studies have shown that musical training enhances verbal ability including verbal memory, and perhaps language ability.
Based on earlier studies, it had been shown that experiences early in life affect brain structure and cognitive functions and that cognitive function are highly localized in the brain. Individuals with music training tend to have an enlarged left planum temporal. It had been previously found that the left temporal lobe mediates verbal memory and the right region processes visual memory. In 1998, Chan and her associations published their findings that young adults with at least six years of music training demonstrate better verbal but not visual memory than those without musical training.
The group sought to extend their earlier findings and published their report in 2003, ho, et al. Ho’s first objective of the experiment was to explore the effect of music training on the memory of children; the second objective was to further refine the theory in terms of the temporal relationship between the duration of music training and the development of verbal memory. In the first experiment, 90 males from a single sex all boys elementary and high school in Hong Kong volunteered for the study. Forty five of the participants were members of the school band and orchestra program and also had private lessons professional musical instructors from the Hong Kong academy for performing arts. The range of training was between 1 and 5 years with an average of almost 3 years. The subjects’ verbal memory measures were tested with the Hillt-form one test consisted of a 16-two character Chinese word list that was presented orally to each participant three times. The participant had to recall as many words as possible in the three learning trials and after 10 minute and 30 minute delayed recall trials. The subjects’ visual memory measures were tested by the brief visuospatial memory test. A test to measure general intelligence was also administered.
The children with even just one year of music training demonstrated better verbal, ie recalled more words but not visual memory than those without such training (Ho 2003). Results also suggested that the beneficial effect of music training on verbal memory in individuals with less than 6 years of musical training. This result is also consistent with the author’s speculation that increased music training might lead to a greater extent of cortical reorganization in the left temporal region and therefore yield increasingly better verbal learning ability (Ho 2003). Ho suggests, however, that the finding do not imply that there is infinite enhancement of memory with increasing years of music training (Ho 2003).
In a second experiment three sets of children from those who had participated in experiment 1 a year earlier were identified: the continued group were those who had continued music training for an additional year between experiment 1 and 2; the discontinued group who had not had music lessons for at least nine months before experiment 2; and the beginner group who had no music training before experiment 1 was conducted, but had music training in the one year before experiments 1 and 2. The verbal and visual tests were the same as in experiment 1. Ho et al found that those subjects who had music training both beginners and continued improved in verbal learning and retention abilities. Those who discontinued music training failed to show improvement in verbal learning and retention abilities, but memory performance remained stable over time. There were several factors that may have affected its results and thus challenge its validity and its applicability to the general population. First, only males were selected as the target group. This poses a problem because several studies have shown that there is an inherent difference in the way young males and young females learn (Great School Staff Article 1). Second, this study was performed in Hong Kong where students speak a tonal language, which has been shown to be a factor affecting learning. For example, results from a study conducted by Deutsch d. Dooley et al. indicate that that tonal language cultures have an advantage in music in terms of training those cultures to develop Absolute pitch if they are not born with it -- a major advantage that contributes to learning and understanding music (Deutsch et al. 2009). This suggests that perhaps people who speak tonal languages not only have an advantage in terms of processing and learning music but also verbal memory. The author states that the findings are not specific to Chinese people, however, because similar tests administered in Canada yielded similar results (Ho 2003).
In “Dynamic auditory processing, musical experience and language development,” conducted by Paula Tallal and Nadine Gaab, report how mitigated language learning impairments (LLI) were improved by interventions for struggling learners. Prior studies showed that there Is a link between early spoken language impairments and subsequent literacy problems and that the core deficit is phonological impairment. Whether phonological deficits are speech specific or derive at least in part from domain general perceptual, memory, attention and/or motor constraints is an open question. A focus on sensory-motor deficits has led to the discovery of a constraint in the speed of information processing and/or production which disrupts language learning beginning with the acquisition of phonological representations suggesting a central auditory processing mechanism involved in processing dynamic spectral and/or temporal change. Each language has its own set of phenomes that must be learned from experience and represented as neural firing patterns in auditory cortex (i.e. can distinguish ba from da in a few milliseconds). Individuals with language impairments have difficulty Tracking brief, rapidly successive acoustic changes within the complex acoustic waveform of speech. There is a potential link between rapid spectrotemporal auditory processing and phological processing. They are less able to discriminate, sequence, remember, and accurately produce speech sounds.
Music training has been shown to improve many aspects of auditory processing and to improve cognitive language and literacy skills, leading to alterations of functional anatomy in brain areas that are used while performing various brain areas that are used when performing auditory tasks. Music and speech both share a similar developmental time and represented the most cognitively complex use of acoustic information by humans and both take advantage of dynamic modulation of acoustic parameters.
Tallal et al. examined rapid auditory sequencing training and music training to aid individuals struggling with language and literacy skills. They found that children participating in the rapid auditory sequencing training program (Commercial available as Fast ForWord) showed substantial improvements in the rate of acoustic processing, and in speech discrimination and language comprehension, compared with well matched control group of children with LLI who received the same language training but w/ natural speech and no auditory sequencing training. Other findings included: rapid auditory sequencing training has also helped children with serious academic weaknesses that showed greater gains in oral language tasks and certain tests of phonological awareness; training performance on all measures of oral language and reading showed significant improvement; before training dyslexic subjects showed absence of metablolic activity in the temporoparietal language regions while performing letter rhyming activation task.
Tallal also conducted another study observing the effects of music training on remediating language-learning impairments based upon her speculation of a more novel theory, suggesting that music training might enhance the ability to process rapid spectrotempral acoustic cues and alter underlying functional anatomy in hopes of strengthening auditory and phonological deficits (Tallal et al.) Tallal had both musicians vs. non musicians listen to three-tone sequences with varying ISIs and then asked them to reproduce the order of the tones manually while simultaneously examining their brains using fMRI. Results indicated that those individuals with musical training did indeed alter the functional anatomy underlying rapid spectrotemporal processing of nonlinguistic stimuli, resulting in improved behavioral performance and efficient functional neural networking involving traditional language regions (Tallal et al. 2006). These findings suggest that musical training may have a positive effect on individuals who have developmental LLI.
Overall, Tallal’s findings suggested that musical training not only improves nonverbal rapid spectrotrmporal processing, but also changed the neural network involved in rapid spectrotemporal processing so that it overlaps primarily with brain areas traditionally associated with language processing (Tallal 2006). Further studies, however, should focus upon the exact neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between nonverbal and verbal rapid spectrotemporal processing, its brain correlates, and the potential role musical training may play in improving language and literacy skills.
The effect of these studies, prototype training program and music training, is still under much study. Hopes are high. Most of these studies, however, are done in young children and older students. The age gap even between these two groups is large. Older children will have some advantage in these training programs because they have devised strategies to overcome their deficits.
Based on my own experience using both music training and rapid auditory sequencing training, I believe that music played a larger role on my improvement of language and phonological skills. I found that the automated voices in the fast ForWord program were so automated that it was even more difficult to distinguish sounds. I also found it extremely boring which caused me to fall asleep every time I used it. Finally, I found that it always marked several of my answers wrong when they were actually correct (my speech pathologist checked this). I was one of the participants in the trial phase. My experience is not controlled.
Around the time I was using this Fast ForWord, I had simultaneously begun formal voice lessons and had joined an orchestra in addition to my piano and flute studies. I believe these musical activities had some impact on my improved phonological difficulties, especially singing. I think that the work I had to do because I was singing in other languages forced me to sound out words and really discriminate between the different language sounds.
Works Cited
Deutsch, D, et al. “Absolute pitch among students in American music conservatory: association with tone language fluency.” Acoustical Society of America 125.4 (2009): 2398-403. Print.
Ho, Yim-Chi, Mei-Chun Cheung, and Agnes S Chan. “Musical Training Improves Verbal but not Visual Memory: Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Explorations in Children.” Neuropsychology 17.3 (2003): 439-450. Print.
Mapou, Rob. Report of Neuropsychological Evaluation for Colette Young. Silver Spring: William R. Stixrud, Ph.D. and Associations, LLC, 2007. Print.
Tallal, Paula, and Nadine Gaab. “Dynamic auditory processing, musical experience and language development.” Trends in Neuroscience 29.7 (2006): 382-390. Print.
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Cultural influences on the Brain
Cultural influences on the Brain
Research has shown that culture has a large impact on the way people interpret information. There are clear differences as to how westerners and East Asians each perceived, interpreted, and understood the same presentation. One study for example found that Westerners attend more to discrete objects where as East Asians attended to contextual information (Chua et al. 2005). Another study found that Westerns tended to be more analytic and East Asians more holistic reflecting differences in social orientations (Varnum et al., 2010). As we learned in class different people see things quiet differently from each other but to what extent do these differences affect how people absorb and react to information?
Researchers have found that there are systematic differences between performance in casual perception, memory and judgment between Americans and East Asians (Chua et al. 2005). For example, in a change blindness experiment, Americans and Japanese viewed a sequence of still photos and animated vignettes of complex visual scenes. Then changes were made in focal object information and new contextual information was presented. Overall, the Japanese reported more changes in the contextual details whereas the Americans reported more changes in the focal objects. Findings from this research determined that the Asian participants had more detailed mental representations of backgrounds, whereas the Westerns had more detailed representations of the focal objects (Chua et al, 2005). The mental representations did not differ between cultures, but the accuracy for detecting a deviation between their mental representation of the background/focal object and the stimulus was different.
Whether the cultural effects occur at the level of encoding or retrieval is unclear. Research has suggested where cultural differences might arise. Within 100 ms of first viewing a scene, people often encode and make an incomplete mental model of the scene in working memory. Although the initial eye fixation may not be related to the configuration of the scene, the informative regions of the scene are the most focused on and best for the task at hand. The mental representation of the scene is transferred to and consolidated in long term memory. Successful retrieval from long-term memory relies on appropriate retrieval cues. During retrieval, the recalled information may be filtered by experimental demands and cultural expectations. Prior studies have been unable to establish whether effects are due to differences in perception, encoding, consolidation, recall, comparison judgments, or reporting bias.
In our lectures, we discussed corollary discharges and the effects they have on how we make sense of information. Corollary discharges are developed from a series of outputs that combine and form a symphony (our underlying structure for our actions). Perhaps the difference between the two cultures is caused when corollary discharges, which are influenced by culture, are formed. Possibly the combination of outputs to form the routing of corollary discharges is affected by the different styles between the two cultures.
In lectures, we also identified differences in visual interpretation across all types of people. Through several color and optical illusion demonstrations, we were able to see firsthand how our brains can easily be tricked by certain presentations. This theory could be applied in an experiment conducted by Chua et al. In the experiment it was found that East Asians were less likely to correctly recognize previously presented foregrounded objects when presented in new backgrounds whereas Americans looked at the foregrounded objects sooner and longer than the Chinese. Overall, both groups focused on the background more than the objects (Chua et al., 2005). The Chinese made focuses during each picture presentations than the Americans but it was because the Chinese made more focuses on the background. Participants from both cultures had longer fixes on the objects than on the backgrounds but this was more true of Americans than Chinese. Generally, the cultural difference in the memory study was reflected in eye movements (Chua et al., 2005). The Chinese and Americans were looking at these pictures differently. If we were to give both Chinese and Americans impossible figure/optical illusions would one group realize the trick behind them more quickly or both would take the same amount of time to realize the problem.
Research has shown that not only is visual information affected by the cultural differences but also social orientations. Cultures that endorse and allow independent social orientation tend to emphasize self direction, autonomy, and self-expression, like Western cultures. Asian cultures, on the other hand, tend to endorse harmony, relatedness, and connection. In lecture we discussed the “I function.” The “I function,” is understood to aid our sense of what we can do based on the capabilities of our nervous system. Unlike our unconscious, the “I function” is what allows us to have some control over actions. Conceivably the Western culture has created a society that is more independent whereas Asian cultures are more community based. Because of this, Westerns put their “I function” to more use which gives them more control in social situations where in Asian culture more things are decided for them. Perhaps this social practice influences and affects how people use senses such as vision.
These findings do not rule out other possibilities affecting how people understand information. Other causes could be geographic mobility, industrialization, political systems, corollary discharge wiring, perception, etc. the fact is that everyone views the world differently. Cultural influences, such as social interactions, seem to have much influence on our senses which affects everything down the line (what we absorb, how we respond, etc.). These influences are set through practice and stored in our unconscious. Our brains seem to then create pictures from these experiences which guide us in making decisions and realizing our surroundings. No matter what the differences, though, we must utilize our differences to our advantage in order to make sense and guide our decisions in our surroundings. Since no one person has a complete grasp of everything, everyone’s contribution can be valued and instructive.
Works Cited
Chua, Hannah Faye; Julie E. Boland; Richard E. Nisbett. (2005). Cultural variation in eye movements during scene perception. PNA, Retrieved from www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0506162102
Varnum, Michael E.W.; Igor Grossmann; Shinobu Kitayama, Richard E. Nisbett. (2010). The Origin of Cultural Differences in Cognition: The Social Orientation Hypothesis. Association for PsychologicalScience, Retrieved from http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/19/1/9.
Boredom and mind wandering
Boredom and mind wandering are frequent recurring experiences that typically occur during conferences, events, lectures (of course excluding Neuro Bio), etc. Research has shown that mind wandering is a decoupling of the attentional focusing process that impairs the integrated scheme necessary for successful learning (Smallwood et al. 2007). People encode public external information and transform it so that it is consistent with their own personal representations. The hierarchical levels in discourse processing begin with superficial engagement with the task environment requiring stimulus identification. When mind wandering occurs, there may be a failure in identification such as detecting the target from a stream of irrelevant targets. In moderate engagement with the task environment such as list learning there is stimulus identification and retention. Mind wandering at this level impairs superficial encoding. At the third level, the deepest engagements with the task environment as in reading are necessary requiring stimulus identification, retention, and model creation in which information is detected and retained and then a narrative of events that extend in time is created. Mind wandering at this level impairs model building. Regardless of which level mind wandering occurs, people’s ability to comprehend is diminished and until there is a suitable solution to aiding peoples’ attention information processing will be impaired. Mind wandering occurs less frequently (20%-40%) at higher levels of engagement than at lower levels (30%-50%)
A study conducted by Smallwood et al., looked at mind wandering in populations where mind wandering was more frequent (Depressed and ADHD patients) and suggested techniques that could help to decrease their mind-wandering. They hypothesized that in these groups, people were more likely to mind wander due to deficits in metacognitive control – the ability to realize, control and affect their own thinking processes. Their findings indicated that this was indeed true and led them to conclude that despite these people's intention to pay attention, they go off task. The authors suggested that types of metacognative strengthening therapy would probably be beneficial to minimizing mind-wandering. For example, promotion of participation using think-aloud protocols and/or comprehension monitoring has been suggested. Such techniques could help increase engagement with material through use of immersion and lower the frequency of mind wandering. Another suggestion proposed by Smallwood et al., would be metacognitive training techniques such as Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). This attempts to change the relationship between individuals and their thoughts in order to reduce mind wandering.
In a report “What does doodling do?” by Jackie Andrade, it was found that people often doodle, aimlessly sketching patterns and figures unrelated to a primary task. Some have wondered whether doodling may have some functional role in combating boredom. In Andrade’s experiment, subjects listened to a dull voice message in a dull room while simultaneously coloring simple geometric forms, an approximation of “doodling.” The author found that those who doodled did better recalling names and places mentioned in the voice message on a recall test. The authors suggested that doodling may have reduced mind wandering and thereby facilitated deeper processing. This may have been the result of adding a resource load to an undemanding task or by selectively loading central executive resources by forcing coordination of verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory and preventing these resources to be used for mind wandering.
Central Pattern Generators are networks of neurons that without an outside stimulus can produce periodically a symphony of patterned outputs enabling activities such as walking, breathing, flying, and swimming (Marder et al. 2001). Rhythmic patterns are generated by two or more processes interacting such that sequentially there is an increase and decrease in output, the system always returning to its starting condition. Patterns are not locked, but can be modified so that there may be a family of related actions such as walking and running or there may be variations that result in what categorically are separate actions such as running and crawling. CPGs help organisms function more quickly and efficiently and in a more coordinated manner.
Smallwood et al. reported that at all levels of task engagement there is a very high amount of mind wandering approaching 50% of time spent off task. People seem to cycle between attention to a task and time spent off task and this seems to be imbedded in people. Mind wandering is not a physical action like walking or breathing, but there could be a central pattern generator that cycles attention with it increasing and decreasing over time in relation to several tasks. It could be for survival not to be too focused on one activity and not tuning in on what else is going on. In a classroom this might be a problem, but in the jungle it might be necessary.
When a motor command is generated a copy of the command called an efference copy may be made and retained. This efference copy enables the brain to compare what is reported to it by the sensory system as the result of the execution of the motor command. A comparison can be made between the expected results and the actual result. The copy can also be put into the sensory pathway to cancel out what is reported to the brain by the sensory system as a result of the execution of the motor command. This may help distinguish between self generated and externally generated sensory information.
Corollary discharges show that copies of neuronal commands can be fed into other neural pathways and affect their functioning or even their ability to function. It has been shown that certain metacognitive techniques such as mindfulness based cognitive therapy can reduce mind wandering. Mind wandering is not motor activity, but doodling is. Copies of the doodling activity commands may be fed into the central pattern generator to diminish its increasing/decreasing activity so that a person would stay on task consistently.
Works Cited
Andrade, Jackie. (2010) “What does Doodling do?” Applied cognitive Psychology 24, 100-106.
Smallwood, Jonathan. (2007) “Counting the cost of an absent mind: Mindwandering as an Underrecognized influence on educational performance.” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 230.
Washburn, Daniel. (1972) “Increase of Autonomic Arousal By Boredom.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Vol 80 NO 1 29-36.
Boredom and mind wandering
Boredom and mind wandering are frequent recurring experiences that typically occur during conferences, events, lectures (of course excluding Neuro Bio), etc. Research has shown that mind wandering is a decoupling of the attentional focusing process that impairs the integrated scheme necessary for successful learning (Smallwood et al. 2007). People encode public external information and transform it so that it is consistent with their own personal representations. The hierarchical levels in discourse processing begin with superficial engagement with the task environment requiring stimulus identification. When mind wandering occurs, there may be a failure in identification such as detecting the target from a stream of irrelevant targets. In moderate engagement with the task environment such as list learning there is stimulus identification and retention. Mind wandering at this level impairs superficial encoding. At the third level, the deepest engagements with the task environment as in reading are necessary requiring stimulus identification, retention, and model creation in which information is detected and retained and then a narrative of events that extend in time is created. Mind wandering at this level impairs model building. Regardless of which level mind wandering occurs, people’s ability to comprehend is diminished and until there is a suitable solution to aiding peoples’ attention information processing will be impaired. Mind wandering occurs less frequently (20%-40%) at higher levels of engagement than at lower levels (30%-50%)
A study conducted by Smallwood et al., looked at mind wandering in populations where mind wandering was more frequent (Depressed and ADHD patients) and suggested techniques that could help to decrease their mind-wandering. They hypothesized that in these groups, people were more likely to mind wander due to deficits in metacognitive control – the ability to realize, control and affect their own thinking processes. Their findings indicated that this was indeed true and led them to conclude that despite these people's intention to pay attention, they go off task. The authors suggested that types of metacognative strengthening therapy would probably be beneficial to minimizing mind-wandering. For example, promotion of participation using think-aloud protocols and/or comprehension monitoring has been suggested. Such techniques could help increase engagement with material through use of immersion and lower the frequency of mind wandering. Another suggestion proposed by Smallwood et al., would be metacognitive training techniques such as Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). This attempts to change the relationship between individuals and their thoughts in order to reduce mind wandering.
In a report “What does doodling do?” by Jackie Andrade, it was found that people often doodle, aimlessly sketching patterns and figures unrelated to a primary task. Some have wondered whether doodling may have some functional role in combating boredom. In Andrade’s experiment, subjects listened to a dull voice message in a dull room while simultaneously coloring simple geometric forms, an approximation of “doodling.” The author found that those who doodled did better recalling names and places mentioned in the voice message on a recall test. The authors suggested that doodling may have reduced mind wandering and thereby facilitated deeper processing. This may have been the result of adding a resource load to an undemanding task or by selectively loading central executive resources by forcing coordination of verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory and preventing these resources to be used for mind wandering.
Central Pattern Generators are networks of neurons that without an outside stimulus can produce periodically a symphony of patterned outputs enabling activities such as walking, breathing, flying, and swimming (Marder et al. 2001). Rhythmic patterns are generated by two or more processes interacting such that sequentially there is an increase and decrease in output, the system always returning to its starting condition. Patterns are not locked, but can be modified so that there may be a family of related actions such as walking and running or there may be variations that result in what categorically are separate actions such as running and crawling. CPGs help organisms function more quickly and efficiently and in a more coordinated manner.
Smallwood et al. reported that at all levels of task engagement there is a very high amount of mind wandering approaching 50% of time spent off task. People seem to cycle between attention to a task and time spent off task and this seems to be imbedded in people. Mind wandering is not a physical action like walking or breathing, but there could be a central pattern generator that cycles attention with it increasing and decreasing over time in relation to several tasks. It could be for survival not to be too focused on one activity and not tuning in on what else is going on. In a classroom this might be a problem, but in the jungle it might be necessary.
When a motor command is generated a copy of the command called an efference copy may be made and retained. This efference copy enables the brain to compare what is reported to it by the sensory system as the result of the execution of the motor command. A comparison can be made between the expected results and the actual result. The copy can also be put into the sensory pathway to cancel out what is reported to the brain by the sensory system as a result of the execution of the motor command. This may help distinguish between self generated and externally generated sensory information.
Corollary discharges show that copies of neuronal commands can be fed into other neural pathways and affect their functioning or even their ability to function. It has been shown that certain metacognitive techniques such as mindfulness based cognitive therapy can reduce mind wandering. Mind wandering is not motor activity, but doodling is. Copies of the doodling activity commands may be fed into the central pattern generator to diminish its increasing/decreasing activity so that a person would stay on task consistently.
Works Cited
Andrade, Jackie. (2010) “What does Doodling do?” Applied cognitive Psychology 24, 100-106.
Smallwood, Jonathan. (2007) “Counting the cost of an absent mind: Mindwandering as an Underrecognized influence on educational performance.” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 230.
Washburn, Daniel. (1972) “Increase of Autonomic Arousal By Boredom.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Vol 80 NO 1 29-36.
speech comprehension, music, and the brain
Its an interesting and entirely reasonable idea that musical experience/training might affect verbal skills (and the latter might affect the former). There certainly are similar underlying sound recognition and production processes involved in both that could be altered by experience (perhaps with either). On the other hand, there are certainly additional processes involved in speech comprehension that are more unique to that activity (and similarly for music). And for at least some people, those with severe hearing loss, language development need not involve either sound comprehension or production at all. All of this is to say that from the point of view of the brain, things that seem fairly simple and straightforward (music, verbal skill) turn out to consist of a surprising array of both overlapping and distinct processes of which we are normally unaware.