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

Experiment II 121
physical judgements. In contrast, children with SLI may primarily rely on the acoustical
process and have deficiencies in the cognitive process (which is indicated by their lack
of an ERAN and an N5). The ability to detect invariant aspects of the structural relations
within the elements of the sequences (e.g., chords or tones) might be deficient in SLI
children. This ability is essential for the acquisition of implicit knowledge of musical
syntax. This knowledge provides the basis for the cognitive operations involved in syntax
processing. Moreover, these processes appear in direct succession and their onset is
overlapping in time: the acoustic process around 100 to 200 ms, the cognitive process
(reflected by the ERAN) around 230 to 350 ms. As the observed ERP components have
a different polarity, the onset of the ERAN may reduce the amplitude size of the early
acoustic difference.
Somewhat contrasting with the assumption that children with SLI may merely rely on
the acoustical process is the lack of a difference between children with SLI and children
with TLD in their ERP responses to the first chord of the sequence: For the initial 200
ms of the first chord no difference between the two groups was found (neither a main
effect nor any of the interactions with subgroup were significant). It should be emphasized
that the lack of finding a different ERP response to the onset of the chord sequence
and the above made assumptions differ with regard to the processes that underlie
them: At the onset of the chord sequence there is no memory representation of preceding
chords in echoic memory (because the preceding sequence was finished and followed
by a silent interval) whereas the acoustic process mentioned above builds upon
these echoic memory representations.
However, even though the above made reasoning is consistent, it remains speculative.
Thus, this early effect should be replicated and confirmed, and its functional significance
remains to be specified in further studies. Unfortunately, no correlations of the
amplitude of the early acoustic difference with other behavioural measures were found.
Such correlation would have allowed getting an idea of what cognitive processes are
related to this early acoustic difference.
The results of this experiment can be summarized focussing on underlying memory
processes and the commonalities of language and music. These accounts do not exclude
each other. Firstly, the memory deficiencies contributing to the differences between
children with TLD and with SLI might be related to a deficit of the procedural memory
system in children with SLI (Ullman & Pierpont, 2005). Further, some of the correlations
with the ERAN amplitude emphasize the importance of working memory functions
for music-syntactic processing: A prerequisite to comprehend a musical or a sentential
phrase is to hold the elements of this phrase in memory and to build relations
between these elements in order to detect the underlying structure, to group these ele-