Musical ability has been found to be associated with an enhancement of verbal working memory. In this study, we investigated whether this effect would generalize to visual-spatial working memory as would be expected if the effect were driven by general intelligence. We administered the WAIS-III Digit Span; the WMS-III Spatial Span; and the Musical Ear Test (MET), a forced-choice same/different listening task measuring musical ability, to non-musicians, amateur musicians, and expert musicians. Expert musicians significantly outperformed non-musicians on the Digit Span. Additionally, Digit Span Forward scores were found to be correlated with MET total scores and with scores on the rhythm subtest of the MET. No between-group differences were found on the Spatial Span.

This study investigated the effect of a 6-month one-to-one musical ear-training program on the perception of music, speech, and emotional prosody of deaf patients receiving a cochlear implant (CI). Eighteen patients who recently underwent cochlear implantation were assigned to either a musical ear-training group or a control group. The participants in the music group significantly improved in their overall music perception compared with the control group. In particular, their discrimination of timbre, melodic contour, and rhythm improved. Both groups significantly improved in their speech perception; thus, this effect cannot be specifically ascribed to music training. In contrast to the control group, the music group showed an earlier onset of progress in recognition of emotional prosody, whereas end-point performances were comparable. All participants completed the program and showed great enthusiasm for the musical ear training, particularly singing-related activities. If implemented as part of aural/oral rehabilitation therapy, the proposed musical ear-training program could form a valuable complementary method of auditory rehabilitation, and, in the long term, contribute to an improved general quality of life in CI users.

One of the most immediate and overt ways in which people respond to music is by moving their bodies to the beat. However, the extent to which the rhythmic complexity of groove-specifically its syncopation-contributes to how people spontaneously move to music is largely unexplored. Here, we measured free movements in hand and torso while participants listened to drum-breaks with various degrees of syncopation. We found that drum-breaks with medium degrees of syncopation were associated with the same amount of acceleration and synchronisation as low degrees of syncopation. Participants who enjoyed dancing made more complex movements than those who did not enjoy dancing. While for all participants hand movements accelerated more and were more complex, torso movements were more synchronised to the beat. Overall, movements were mostly synchronised to the main beat and half-beat level, depending on the body-part. We demonstrate that while people do not move or synchronise much to rhythms with high syncopation when dancing spontaneously to music, the relationship between rhythmic complexity and synchronisation is less linear than in simple finger-tapping studies.

Absolute pitch (AP), the ability to identify a musical pitch without a reference, has been examined behaviorally in numerous studies for more than a century, yet only a few studies have examined the neuroanatomical correlates of AP. Here, we used MRI and diffusion tensor imaging to investigate structural differences in brains of musicians with and without AP, by means of whole-brain vertex-wise cortical thickness (CT) analysis and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis. APs displayed increased CT in a number of areas including the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG), the left inferior frontal gyrus, and the right supramarginal gyrus. Furthermore, we found higher fractional anisotropy in APs within the path of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, the uncinate fasciculus, and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus. The findings in gray matter support previous studies indicating an increased left lateralized posterior STG in APs, yet they differ from previous findings of thinner cortex for a number of areas in APs. Finally, we found a relation between the white-matter results and the CT in the right parahippocampal gyrus. In this study, we present novel findings in AP research that may have implications for the understanding of the neuroanatomical underpinnings of AP ability.

Cochlear implants (CIs) are primarily designed to assist deaf individuals in perception of speech, although possibilities for music fruition have also been documented. Previous studies have indicated the existence of neural correlates of residual music skills in postlingually deaf adults and children. However, little is known about the behavioral and neural correlates of music perception in the new generation of prelingually deaf adolescents who grew up with CIs. With electroencephalography (EEG), we recorded the mismatch negativity (MMN) of the auditory event-related potential to changes in musical features in adolescent CI users and in normal-hearing (NH) age mates. EEG recordings and behavioral testing were carried out before (T1) and after (T2) a 2-week music training program for the CI users and in two sessions equally separated in time for NH controls. We found significant MMNs in adolescent CI users for deviations in timbre, intensity, and rhythm, indicating residual neural prerequisites for musical feature processing. By contrast, only one of the two pitch deviants elicited an MMN in CI users. This pitch discrimination deficit was supported by behavioral measures, in which CI users scored significantly below the NH level. Overall, MMN amplitudes were significantly smaller in CI users than in NH controls, suggesting poorer music discrimination ability. Despite compliance from the CI participants, we found no effect of the music training, likely resulting from the brevity of the program. This is the first study showing significant brain responses to musical feature changes in prelingually deaf adolescent CI users and their associations with behavioral measures, implying neural predispositions for at least some aspects of music processing. Future studies should test any beneficial effects of a longer lasting music intervention in adolescent CI users.

The effects of physostigmine on patterns of rCBF in patients with pre-senile Alzheimer's disease were studied using 99mTc-labelled HMPAO SPECT. Regional CBF increased in the left cortex relative to right, with the most significant effect in left frontal and higher frontal regions. Measures of regional brain function, such as SPECT, are an important complement to psychological test batteries in understanding the effects in brain of putative antidementia drugs. SPECT brain imaging could extend our understanding of the action of psychotropic drugs in other major psychiatric illnesses.

In general, cochlear implant users see considerable benefit from their implant. Yet, there is great individual variation in speech reception. This study investigated whether individual differences in auditory and visual working memory abilities are related to speech reception in noise. To this end, we administered two tests of working memory – the WAIS-III Digit Span and PyVDT, a visual monitoring task – to 25 cochlear implant users. We found duration of profound hearing loss and age at profound hearing loss to be the best predictors of speech reception. We did not find Digit Span scores or visual monitoring as measured by the PyVDT to be useful predictors of speech reception. Additionally, we compared the Digit Span scores of our sample of cochlear implant users to the Danish WAIS-III Digit Span normative sample. On the Digit Span Forward, cochlear implant users scored approximately one digit lower than the normative mean; on the Digit Span Backward, cochlear implant users scored approximately half a digit lower than the normative mean. The study found no support for the ideas that auditory or visual working memory predicts speech reception. Our results instead indicate that shorter durations of hearing loss predict good speech reception outcomes, and vice versa.

Anthropomorphism represents a central theoretical term in social robotics and human robot interaction (HRI) research. However, the research into anthropomorphism displays several conceptual problems that translate into methodological shortcomings. Here we report the results of a scoping review, which we conducted in order to explore (i) how the notion of ‘anthropomorphism’ is understood in HRI and social robotics research, and (ii) which assessment tools are used to assess anthropomorphism. Three electronic databases were searched; two independent reviewers were involved in the screening and data extraction process; a total of 57 studies were included in the final review which encompassed 43 different robots and 2947 participants. Across studies, researchers used seven different definitions of anthropomorphism and most commonly assessed the phenomenon by use of amended versions of existing questionnaires (n = 26 studies). Alternatively, idiosyncratic questionnaires were developed (n = 17 studies) which, as a qualitative thematic analysis of the individual questionnaire items revealed, addressed nine distinct themes (such as attribution of shared intentionality, attribution of personality etc.). We discuss these results relative to common standards of methodological maturity and arrive at the conclusion that the scope and heterogeneity of definitions and assessment tools of anthropomorphism in HRI hinders cross-study comparisons, while the lack of validated assessment tools might also affect the quality of results. To nurture reflection on these methodological challenges and increase comparability within the field we conclude by offering a set of reporting guidelines for research on anthropomorphism, as a first constructive effort to facilitate a coherent theory of anthropomorphism.