Language, music, syntax and the brain

Patel, Aniruddh D.

doi:10.1038/nn1082

Cited by 945 publications

(866 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…As is known for neurons in visual cortex [47], the real-time contribution of this region may well vary with time, as a consequence of the different dynamic cortical networks in which it is embedded at different points in time. This fits well with the finding that Broca's region as a whole is not language-specific, but also recruited in the service of other cognitive domains, such as music [48] and action [49], and with the finding that its contribution crosses the boundaries of semantics, syntax, and phonology [46]. Ideally, and in order to make progress, we need to determine both the function and the real-time contribution of Broca's region at time-slice t in the context of network N(t).…”

Section: Current Opinion In Neurobiologysupporting

confidence: 89%

Nodes and networks in the neural architecture for language: Broca's region and beyond

Hagoort

2014

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

242

213

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Current views on the neurobiological underpinnings of language are discussed that deviate in a number of ways from the classical Wernicke-Lichtheim-Geschwind model. More areas than Broca's and Wernicke's region are involved in language. Moreover, a division along the axis of language production and language comprehension does not seem to be warranted. Instead, for central aspects of language processing neural infrastructure is shared between production and comprehension. Three different accounts of the role of Broca's area in language are discussed. Arguments are presented in favor of a dynamic network view, in which the functionality of a region is co-determined by the network of regions in which it is embedded at particular moments in time. Finally, core regions of language processing need to interact with other networks (e.g. the attentional networks and the ToM network) to establish full functionality of language and communication. IntroductionOur capacity for language is deeply rooted in our biological make-up. We all share the capacity to acquire language within the first few years of life, without any formalized teaching programme. Despite its complexity we master our native language well before we can lace our shoes or perform simple calculations. This is all based on the universal availability of a language-ready brain. At the same time, few other cognitive systems in humans show as much variability as language. Language comes in very different surface forms, at most levels of organization. The more than 6000 different languages still in existence today vary widely in their sound repertoires, their grammatical structures, or the meaning that the lexical items code for. In addition to the variability in the world's languages, there is individual variation in language skills. Some people command only a limited vocabulary and simple sentence structures, whereas others are polyglots speaking multiple languages fluently, or can do simultaneous translation between languages. This variability is underpinned by differences at the genetic level and in the cultural trajectories that have shaped the linguistic phenotypes. Despite all these differences, they are variations on a theme. The theme is the neurobiological infrastructure that is largely shared among members of our species.Although human language skills presumably have their precursors in the communication and cognitive systems of other species (cf. [1 ]), the architecture of our language system sets us apart from other species and is uniquely human. It is characterized by a tripartite architecture [2 ] that enables us to map sound onto meaning (in listening) or meaning onto sound (in speaking). Next to sound and meaning, there is syntax, which enables the well-formed grouping of words into longer utterances. At a very general level, for all three information types (sound, syntax, meaning), one can make a distinction between two crucial components. The one relates to the common assumption that the basic building blocks of linguistic knowledge get encoded...

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Section: Current Opinion In Neurobiologysupporting

confidence: 89%

Nodes and networks in the neural architecture for language: Broca's region and beyond

Hagoort

2014

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

242

213

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“…The looser sense of modularity in Jackendoff (2002), with many smaller interacting modules, may be applicable, perhaps along lines proposed by Peretz and Coltheart (2003). In particular, we would expect the existence of overlaps with language as well as dissociations from language, as have been observed (Patel, 2003;Peretz & Coltheart, 2003;Peretz & Hyde, 2003).…”

Section: Concluding Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 71%

The capacity for music: What is it, and what’s special about it?

2006

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We explore the capacity for music in terms of five questions: (1) What cognitive structures are invoked by music? (2) What are the principles that create these structures? (3) How do listeners acquire these principles? (4) What pre-existing resources make such acquisition possible? (5) Which aspects of these resources are specific to music, and which are more general?We examine these issues by looking at the major components of musical organization: rhythm (an interaction of grouping and meter), tonal organization (the structure of melody and harmony), and affect (the interaction of music with emotion). Each domain reveals a combination of cognitively general phenomena, such as gestalt grouping principles, harmonic roughness, and stream segregation, with phenomena that appear special to music and language, such as metrical organization. These are subtly interwoven with a residue of components that are devoted specifically to music, such as the structure of tonal systems and the contours of melodic tension and relaxation that depend on tonality. In the domain of affect, these components are especially tangled, involving the interaction of such varied factors as general-purpose aesthetic framing, communication of affect by tone of voice, and the musically specific way that tonal pitch contours evoke patterns of posture and gesture.

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“…Regarding the core common areas, engagement of similar areas for language and music is reasonable to be expected since, after all, music processing shares some circuitry with spoken language processing, especially when subjects are experts in both music and language systems (Koelsch, Gunter, von Cramon, Zysset, & Lohmann, 2002;Patel, Gibson, Ratner, Besson, & Holcomb, 1998;Patel, 2003;Steinbeis & Koelsch, 2008).…”

Section: Neuroimaging Studies Of Music-related Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of brain activity underlying working memory for music in a naturalistic condition

Burunat

Alluri

Toiviainen

et al. 2014

Cortex

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Sivumäärä -Number of pages 70Tiivistelmä -Abstract Working memory (WM) is at the core of any cognitive function as it is necessary for the integration of information over time. Despite WM's critical role in high-level cognitive functions, its implementation in the neural tissue is poorly understood. Preliminary studies on auditory WM show differences between linguistic and musical memory, leading to the speculation of specific neural networks encoding memory for music. Moreover, in neuroscience WM has not been studied in naturalistic listening conditions but rather in artificial settings (e.g., n-back and Sternberg tasks). Western tonal music provides naturally occurring motivic repetition and variation, recognizable units serving as WM trigger, thus allowing us to study the phenomenon of motif-tracking in the context of real music. Adopting a modern tango as stimulus, behavioural methods were used to identify the stimulus motifs and build a time-course predictor of WM neural responses. This predictor was then correlated with the participants' functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal obtained during a continuous listening condition. Neural correlates related to the sensory processing of a set of musical features were filtered out from the brain responses to music to aid in the exclusive recruitment of executive processes of music-related WM. Correlational analysis revealed a widely distributed network of cortical and subcortical areas, predominantly right-lateralized, responding to the WM condition, including ventral and dorsal areas in the prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, and limbic areas. Significant subcortical processing areas, active in response to the WM condition, were pruned with the removal of the acoustic content, suggesting these music-related perceptual processing areas might aid in the encoding and retrieval of WM. The pattern of dispersed neural activity indicates WM to emerge coherently from the integration of distributed neural activity spread out over different brain subsystems (motoric-, cognitive-and sensory-related areas of the brain).Asiasanat -Keywords working memory; cognitive neuroscience; music; musical motifs; functional magnetic resonance imaging ( Lashley was attempting to identify the locus of memory within the cortex, and, to do so, first trained rats to run mazes, and then removed various cortical regions. He allowed the animals to recover and tested the retention of the maze-running skills. To his surprise it was not possible to find a particular region corresponding to the ability to remember the way through a maze. Instead all the rats which had had cortex regions removed suffered some kind of impairment, and the extent of the impairment was roughly proportional to the amount of cortex taken off. Removing cortex damaged the motor and sensory capacities of the animals, and they would limp, hop, roll, or stagger, but somehow they always managed to traverse the maze. So far as memory 'as concerned, the cortex appeared to be equipotential, that is, with all regions of eq...

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Language, music, syntax and the brain

Cited by 945 publications

References 72 publications

Nodes and networks in the neural architecture for language: Broca's region and beyond

Nodes and networks in the neural architecture for language: Broca's region and beyond

The capacity for music: What is it, and what’s special about it?

Dynamics of brain activity underlying working memory for music in a naturalistic condition

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