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

Experiment IV 152
An N5 usually follows the ERAN. It is taken to reflect processes of harmonic integra-
tion. It was observed equally in both groups. This is in accordance with an earlier study
investigating the processing of musical syntax in adult musicians (Koelsch, Schmidt et
al., 2002) and with the results of Experiment III that also did not show group differences
in the N5 amplitude.
Comparable to other experiments of this work, an early difference in auditory processing
was found in this experiment. A discussion of the possible functional significance of
this difference can be found in the chapter “Experiment II”.
An ELAN was found for the MT group whereas in the NM group the ELAN was not
significant. These results confirmed our expectations that musical training might lead to
an improved processing of linguistic syntax. The ELAN is proposed to reflect processes
of fast and fairly automatic syntactic structure building and was most prominent at leftanterior
scalp sites, which is in accordance with results from earlier studies in adults
(e.g. Hahne & Friederici, 1999). As this ERP component develops until 12 to 13 years
and the processes that are reflected by it are still developing, it was not clear if it would
be present in 11-year old children. For this reason, the age of the children was an important
additional variable to account for the amplitude size of the ELAN and to disentangle
influences of musical training and of development and their interaction.
The LSN was significant in both groups, but had an enlarged amplitude in the MT
group. This ERP component had an onset around 400 ms and a sustained time course. It
was relatively bilaterally distributed (but was slightly larger in the left hemisphere). In
contrast to the ELAN, which was only found in the MT group, a LSN was found in both
groups. However, the amplitude of the LSN component is almost two times as large in
the MT group as in the NM group.
Usually a P600 follows the ELAN which was not observed in this experiment. However,
this result was expected and in accordance with the results of Experiment III. A
more detailed discussion can be found in the chapter on “Experiment III”.
Both the presence of an ELAN and the enlarged amplitude of the LSN in MT children
indicated a transfer effect from the music- to linguistic-syntactic processing. It nicely
demonstrates that musical training may influence particular processes in another cognitive
domain (as language). This transfer effect may be accounted for by the following
assumption: The enlarged ERAN amplitude in MT children indicates that their musicsyntactic
processing is more elaborated which is reflected larger amplitudes of their
neurophysiological correlates. The overlap in the neural resources underlying the processing
of musical and linguistic syntax (see the chapters on “Music Perception”, “Language
Perception”, and “Music and Language”) makes it likely that transfer effects may
be found. This might have led to a more proficient processing of linguistic syntax in MT