Neural Correlates of Processing Syntax in Music and ... - PubMan

8 Experiments I – IV: Introduction
The present work investigated the processing of musical and linguistic syntax with four
experiments in children of different age groups (2½, 5, 9, and 11 years old). Further, the
influences of language impairment and musical training on these processes were examined.
Experiment I evaluated the processing of musical syntax in 2½-year old children. It
was set out to determine whether neural correlates of music syntactic processing can be
already observed in children of this age.
Experiment II compared the processing of musical syntax in 5-year old children
which either had typical language development or specific language impairment (SLI).
As children with SLI have clear deficiencies in their processing of linguistic syntax it
should be investigated if comparable deficiencies could be observed in their processing
of musical syntax.
Experiment III investigated the processing of musical and linguistic syntax in 9-year
old children. These children were either musically trained or not. An earlier study investigating
the processing of musical syntax in adult musicians (Koelsch, Schmidt et al.,
2002) found an enlarged brain response to a violation of musical syntax. The first objective
of this experiment was to determine if a comparable enlargement could be observed
in children with musical training. Moreover, there is mounting evidence for a considerable
overlap in the neural resources that are involved in the processing of musical and
linguistic syntax (see chapter “Music and Language”). Thus, another objective of Experiment
III was to investigate if this overlap in the neural resources can lead to transfer
effects from music- to linguistic syntactic processing, i.e. to an enlarged brain response
when processing linguistic syntax in musically trained children.
Experiment IV investigated similar issues as Experiment III in an older group of 11year
old children which were either musically trained or non-musically trained. The
same experimental paradigm was employed to investigate how a higher amount of musical
training influences the neural correlates of processing musical and linguistic syntax.
It was expected that an enlarged brain response to both a violation of musical and
linguistic syntax will be found in children with musical training.