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

Experiment III 136
An N5 often succeeds the ERAN and is thought to reflect processes of harmonic inte-
gration (cf. Koelsch et al., 2000). For this ERP component, no difference is found between
the two groups. However, such difference was not expected, firstly, because no
such difference was found in earlier studies. Secondly, previous studies indicated that
musical training influences particularly early non-attentive stages of music perception
(see chapter on “Musical Training”; for a review, see Bigand & Poulin-Charronnat,
2006).
In the language experiment, one ERP component – the LSN - was investigated. It was
observed in both groups. Both – the LSN and the ELAN – reflect the processing of
linguistic syntax, and the LSN is regarded as a precursor of the ELAN, which develops
until around 13 years of age for the sentences with passive mode construction (Hahne et
al., 2004). Thus, as expected, no ELAN was found in either group in this experiment.
Whereas the ELAN is taken to reflect early and automatic processes of initial syntactic
structure building, the LSN does not reflect such early, automatic processes, but such
with a higher latency and a more sustained time course.
Because of the overlap in the neural correlates of processing musical and linguistic
syntax it was assumed that musical training may lead to an enlarged amplitude size of
the LSN (comparable to the enlarged ERAN amplitude in the MT group). However, no
difference in the amplitude size of the LSN was found between the two groups. The
lateralization of this ERP response was slightly different in the MT and the NM children:
whereas a clear leftward lateralization was found in NM children the response was
more bilaterally distributed in the children with MT. This argues for a stronger involvement
of right-hemispheric brain areas – also involved in the processing of musical
syntax – in the processing of linguistic syntax.
Usually the ELAN is followed by a P600 (e.g., Hahne et al., 2004; Hahne & Friederici,
1999). This ERP component is thought to reflect fairly controlled later processes of
reanalysis and repair (cf. Hahne & Friederici, 1999). It was not observed in this experiment.
The lack of observing this ERP component is likely caused by the nature of the
task of the children during the experiment: In most of the previous studies using this
paradigm, participants had to judge the grammaticality of the sentence. In contrast, in
the present experiment the children attended to a change in the timbre of the speaker’s
voice. This task was chosen to provide a similar task as in the music experiment (where
the children attended to a change in the instrumental timbre). The judgement of grammaticality
forced to reanalyse and to repair the sentence which was not necessary in the
present study which might be the reason for the lack of the P600.
In this experiment, it was not possible to match the socio-economic status and the education
of the parents, and the non-verbal IQ of the children in a comparably good fash-