AsianScientist (Apr. 8, 2013) – Speaking a tonal language primes the brain for musical training, says a new study which provides the first evidence of a bi-directional relationship between music and language.
Tonal languages, found mainly in Asia, Africa, and South America, have an abundance of high and low pitch patterns as part of speech. In these languages, differences in pitch can alter the meaning of a word. Vietnamese, for example, has eleven different vowel sounds and six different tones. Cantonese also has an intricate six-tone system, while English has no tones.
Researchers at Baycrest Health Sciences’ Rotman Research Institute (RRI) in Toronto, Canada have found the strongest evidence yet that speaking a tonal language may improve how the brain hears music.
The findings, published in the journal PLOS ONE, are also exciting neuroscientists for another reason: they represent the first strong evidence that music and language – which share overlapping brain structures – have bi-directional benefits.
For the study, the researchers recruited 54 healthy adults in their mid-20s from the University of Toronto and Greater Toronto Area. They were divided into three groups: English-speaking trained musicians (instrumentalists) and Cantonese-speaking and English-speaking non-musicians.
Wearing headphones in a sound-proof lab, participants were tested on their ability to discriminate complex musical notes. They were assessed on measures of auditory pitch acuity and music perception as well as general cognitive ability such as working memory and fluid intelligence (abstract reasoning, thinking quickly).
While the musicians demonstrated superior performance on all auditory measures, the Cantonese non-musicians showed similar performance to musicians on music and cognitive behavioral tasks, testing 15 to 20 percent higher than that of the English-speaking non-musicians.
“For those who speak tonal languages, we believe their brain’s auditory system is already enhanced to allow them to hear musical notes better and detect minute changes in pitch,” said lead investigator Gavin Bidelman.
“If you pick up an instrument, you may be able to acquire the skills faster to play that instrument because your brain has already built up these auditory perceptual advantages through speaking your native tonal language.”
But Bidelman was quick to dispel the notion that people who speak tonal languages make better musicians; musicianship requires much more than the sense of hearing, he said.
Also, not all tonal languages may offer the music listening benefits seen with the Cantonese speakers in his study. Mandarin, for example, has more “curved” tones and the pitch patterns vary with time – which is different from how pitch occurs in music. Musical pitch resembles “stair step, level pitch patterns” which happen to share similarities with the Cantonese language, he explained.
That music and language – two key domains of human cognition – can influence each other offers exciting possibilities for devising new approaches to rehabilitation for people with speech and language deficits, said Bidelman.
“If music and language are so intimately coupled, we may be able to design rehabilitation treatments that use musical training to help individuals improve speech-related functions that have been impaired due to age, aphasia, or stroke,” he said.
Likewise, musical listening skills could be improved by designing well-crafted speech and language training programs, Bidelman said.
The article can be found at: Bidelman GM et al. (2013) Tone Language Speakers and Musicians Share Enhanced Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities for Musical Pitch: Evidence for Bidirectionality between the Domains of Language and Music.
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Source: Baycrest Health Sciences; Photo: enricod/Flickr/CC.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
