Hierarchical control as a shared neurocognitive mechanism for language and music

Abstract

Although comparative research has made substantial progress in clarifying the relationship between language and music as neurocognitive systems from both a theoretical and empirical perspective, there is still no consensus about which mechanisms, if any, are shared and how they bring about different neurocognitive systems. In this paper, we tackle these two questions by focusing on hierarchical control as a neurocognitive mechanism underlying syntax in language and music. We put forward the Coordinated Hierarchical Control (CHC) hypothesis: linguistic and musical syntax rely on hierarchical control, but engage this shared mechanism differently depending on the current control demand. While linguistic syntax preferably engages the abstract rule-based control circuit, musical syntax rather employs the coordination of the abstract rule-based and the more concrete motor-based control circuits. We provide evidence for our hypothesis by reviewing neuroimaging as well as neuropsychological studies on linguistic and musical syntax. The CHC hypothesis makes a set of novel testable predictions to guide future work on the relationship between language and music.

High-order areas and auditory cortex both represent the high-level event structure of music

“…If music resembles language in this way, then the representation of hierarchical event structure in music (e.g., at the level of phrases, sections, and entire songs) and in verbal and audiovisual narratives may be supported by similar neural substrates. Indeed, some evidence already exists for shared neural resources for processing music and language (Jantzen et al, 2016;Koelsch, 2011;Koelsch et al, 2002;Lee et al, 2019;Patel, 2011;Tallal & Gaab, 2006;Asano et al, 2021, Fedorenko et al, 2009Peretz et al, 2015;Tillmann, 2012). This connection between music and language is also supported by recent behavioral studies showing that instrumental music has the capacity to drive shared narrative engagement across people (Margulis et al, 2019, Margulis et al, 2021, McAuley et al, 2021.…”

Rhythmic priming of syntactic processing in Jabberwocky: a short-lived effect

“…The present study explored the hypothesis that there is a cognitive system responsible for coding abstract hierarchical structure, which is recruited by both language and musical rhythm processing (Asano et al, 2021;Fitch & Martins, 2014;Heard & Lee, 2019;Martins et al, 2017).…”

“…It is also possible that the rhythmic priming effect is realised through a cognitive system responsible for the construction of hierarchical structures. This shared cognitive system might include neurocognitive mechanisms such as hierarchical cognitive control and hierarchically organised prediction (Asano et al, 2021).…”

“…One recently proposed explanation for the facilitatory effect of a regular rhythm is twofold: on the one hand, a highly regular rhythm makes it possible for highly automatic processes to construct its metrical representation, thus relieving resources responsible for hierarchical control and enabling more of these resources to be used during subsequent syntax processing (Asano et al, 2021). Conversely, if the system is exposed to an irregular prime, purely automatic structure building processes fail to construct its metrical representation, and fewer resources will be available to be dedicated to syntactic processing, thus penalising performance.…”

“…Shared mechanisms include the precise encoding of low-level information in the acoustic signal, neural oscillations that are able to entrain (become synchronised in frequency, phase, or both) to external and other internal oscillations, and hierarchical cognitive control (Asano et al, 2021;Fiveash et al, 2021.;.…”