Similar cerebral networks in language, music and song perception

Interaction between bottom-up and top-down effects during the processing of pitch intervals in sequences of spoken and sung syllables

“…Here, the activity was stronger for sequences with sung syllables than sequences with spoken sequences. This probably fits to the data of two fMRI-studies which showed stronger activity for sung than spoken material in the right hemisphere, however, in the temporal lobe (Callan et al, 2006;Schön et al, 2010).…”

The Potential Role of Music in Second Language Learning: A Review Article

“…Firstly, musical and speech sounds are segmented and processed similarly by the auditory system (François, Chobert, Besson, & Schön, 2012;Schön et al, 2010). Secondly, these components of language and music may be compounded into larger meaningful units in a structured hierarchical manner-grammar and harmony or rhythm (Patel, 2010;Sloboda, 1985).…”

“…Secondly, these components of language and music may be compounded into larger meaningful units in a structured hierarchical manner-grammar and harmony or rhythm (Patel, 2010;Sloboda, 1985). This shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis (Patel, 2003) challenges the domain-specificity approach and argues that, although representations of music and language components may be stored in different brain regions, a common neural network is used to interpret and structure music and speech sounds (Schön et al, 2010). Therefore, musical practice and expertise fine-tune the auditory system for both music and speech processing and, in turn, strengthen related neural and cognitive mechanisms .…”

Bringing imagination back to the classroom: A model for creative arts in economics

“…Although working memory provides the processing center for consciousness, without the schema present in long-term memory we would not be capable of intellectual activity, much less complicated economic reasoning. Recent work in brain imagining provides additional insight into how the creative arts might impact and improve learning (Ferstl et al, 2008;Schon et al, 2010;Zeman et al, 2013). While it is commonly understood that the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for the lion's share of language processing (Binder et al, 1997), a growing body of research indicates an important role for the right hemisphere in processing more emotional forms of language, including music, poetry, and figurative language.…”

“…Their results suggest that right hemisphere processing, and particularly those areas previously associated with introspection and deeper meaning, are differentially activated in response to poetry over prose. This work follows a growing body of neuroimaging research exploring how our brains process complex language such as metaphors (Ferstl et al, 2008) and song (Schon et al, 2010). Based on this preliminary work, poetry and music appear to have very particular brain responses, and activate areas outside the standard reading network that would be derived from traditional textbook learning to stimulate areas involved in complex reasoning.…”