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

Musical Training 26
their short-term-memory performance for notation (Halpern & Bower, 1982; Sloboda,
1976), and [3] in their memory and recognition of musical phrases (Palmer, Blakeslee,
& Jusczyk, 1999). However, their memory performance was not superior for randomly
rearranged notational information or for phrases of atonal music (Sloboda, Hermelin, &
O’Connor, 1985). This highlights the importance of knowledge of a reference system
(e.g., Western tonal knowledge) for their improved performance.
Even children’s perception of music is fostered by musical training: [1] Children with
musical training become more accurate in their judgements about tempo (Madsen,
1979), and are more likely to focus on metric organization (whereas untrained listeners
rely stronger on figural groupings; cf. Morrongiello, 1992). [2] Musically trained children
outperformed their peers when melody changes had to be recognized: Morrongiello
and Roes (1990) demonstrated that musical training enhanced children’s perception
of melodic features (as pitch and interval information) and the speed at which this
information is processed. Moreover, they found a developmental difference with respect
to the processing of tonal vs. atonal melodies: whereas five-year-olds with musical
training showed higher performance than their untrained peers for both kinds of melodies,
the performance of nine-year-olds with musical training was further enhanced for
tonal (compared to atonal) melodies.
Motor skills
Musical training may lead to physiological adaptations (see, e.g., Ericsson & Charness,
1994) and superior behavioural skills (see, e.g., Ericsson et al., 1993; cf. Hund-
Georgiadis & von Cramon, 1999) as well as to changes in the brain correlates of motor
processes (see, e.g., Lotze, Scheler, Tan, Braun, & Birbaumer, 2003; Ragert, Schmidt,
Altenmüller, & Dinse, 2004; Seitz & Roland, 1992; Slobounov, Chiang, Johnston, &
Ray, 2002).
The discussion of motor skills will mainly focus on the processing of sequences which
is – in some respect – related to the processing of syntax (Lashley, 1951; for further
discussion, see the chapter “Music Perception”). Experts can circumvent basic limits of
sequential processing in tasks involving motor performance (e.g., musicians spent considerable
time to determining how to hit keys to minimize such constraints on movement)
and are, due to their ability to anticipate future events, able to prepare actions in
advance (comparable evidence was obtained by Salthouse, 1984, for professional typists).
Superior planning abilities, combined with a better anticipation and mastery of
temporal constraints, may contribute to the musicians’ successful learning of new musical
pieces (Drake & Palmer, 2000; Palmer & Drake, 1997). They possess more abstract
representation mental plans (in which a particular movement is prepared) which enables