Empirical evidence for musical syntax processing? Computer simulations reveal the contribution of auditory short-term memory

Abstract

During the last decade, it has been argued that (1) music processing involves syntactic representations similar to those observed in language, and (2) that music and language share similar syntactic-like processes and neural resources. This claim is important for understanding the origin of music and language abilities and, furthermore, it has clinical implications. The Western musical system, however, is rooted in psychoacoustic properties of sound, and this is not the case for linguistic syntax. Accordingly, musical syntax processing could be parsimoniously understood as an emergent property of auditory memory rather than a property of abstract processing similar to linguistic processing. To support this view, we simulated numerous empirical studies that investigated the processing of harmonic structures, using a model based on the accumulation of sensory information in auditory memory. The simulations revealed that most of the musical syntax manipulations used with behavioral and neurophysiological methods as well as with developmental and cross-cultural approaches can be accounted for by the auditory memory model. This led us to question whether current research on musical syntax can really be compared with linguistic processing. Our simulation also raises methodological and theoretical challenges to study musical syntax while disentangling the confounded low-level sensory influences. In order to investigate syntactic abilities in music comparable to language, research should preferentially use musical material with structures that circumvent the tonal effect exerted by psychoacoustic properties of sounds.

Neural responses to nostalgia-evoking music modeled by elements of dynamic musical structure and individual differences in affective traits

“…Multiple levels of perceptual and cognitive processing shape tonal expectations during music listening (Bigand, Delbe, Poulin-Charronnat, Leman, & Tillmann, 2014;Collins et al, 2014), as has been shown using computational models of the perceptual representation-cognitive schema continuum (Collins et al, 2014;Toiviainen & Krumhansl, 2003). Models of tonal space (which more closely reflect musical cognitive processes rather than sensory processes) have been shown to drive melodic and harmonic expectations for strongly primed musical events, and have been shown to explain variance in response times to strongly primed musical events above and beyond the variance explained by models of acoustic features of music (which more closely reflect sensory rather than cognitive mechanisms of music perception; Collins et al, 2014).…”

“…We focus on tonality, and the concept of tonal space because the importance of this cognitive schema to the perception and appreciation of music has been well established across Tonal space comprises the system of major and minor keys in Western tonal music in which the melodies and chord (harmony) changes in pieces of music create time-varying trajectories (Collins, Tillmann, Barrett, Delbe, & Janata, 2014;Janata, 2003;Janata et al, 2007;Krumhansl, 1990; Toiviainen & Krumhansl, 2003). Multiple levels of perceptual and cognitive processing shape tonal expectations during music listening (Bigand, Delbe, Poulin-Charronnat, Leman, & Tillmann, 2014; Collins et al, 2014), as has been shown using computational models of the perceptual representation-cognitive schema continuum (Collins et al, 2014; Toiviainen & Krumhansl, 2003). Models of tonal space (which more closely reflect musical cognitive processes rather than sensory processes) have been shown to drive melodic and harmonic expectations for strongly primed musical events, and have been shown to explain variance in response times to strongly primed musical events above and beyond the variance explained by models of acoustic features of music (which more closely reflect sensory rather than cognitive mechanisms of music perception; Collins et al, 2014).…”

Impaired Explicit Processing of Musical Syntax and Tonality in a Group of Mandarin-Speaking Congenital Amusics

“…Experiment 5 1 focused on the processing of musical syntax whereas Experiment 2 examined the perception of tonality. We also evaluated the extent to which pitch discrimination impairments in amusia are predictive of musical syntax and tonality processing, given recent discussions of the complex relationship between the processing of tonal music structure and physical properties of sound (Bigand, Delbé, Poulin-Charronnat, Leman, & Tillmann, 2014;Collins, Tillmann, Delbé, Barrett, & Janata, 2014). If the processing of musical structure is based on the extraction of acoustic features (Huron & Parncutt, 1993;Leman, 2000;Parncutt & Bregman, 2000), then low-level pitch processing deficits in amusia should predict difficulties in processing syntax and tonality.…”

Abnormal neural responses to harmonic syntactic structures in congenital amusia

“…Similar to language, tonal music is “syntactic” in the sense that perceptually discrete elements (such as tones or chords) are combined into musical sequences bound by hierarchical relationships (Bigand, Delbé, Poulin‐Charronnat, Leman, & Tillmann, ). Typically, musical hierarchy can be represented by the perceived stabilities of musical events (Krumhansl, ).…”