“When Music Speaks”: Auditory Cortex Morphology as a Neuroanatomical Marker of Language Aptitude and Musicality

Abstract

Recent research has shown that the morphology of certain brain regions may indeed correlate with a number of cognitive skills such as musicality or language ability. The main aim of the present study was to explore the extent to which foreign language aptitude, in particular phonetic coding ability, is influenced by the morphology of Heschl’s gyrus (HG; auditory cortex), working memory capacity, and musical ability. In this study, the auditory cortices of German-speaking individuals (N = 30; 13 males/17 females; aged 20–40 years) with high and low scores in a number of language aptitude tests were compared. The subjects’ language aptitude was measured by three different tests, namely a Hindi speech imitation task (phonetic coding ability), an English pronunciation assessment, and the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT). Furthermore, working memory capacity and musical ability were assessed to reveal their relationship with foreign language aptitude. On the behavioral level, significant correlations were found between phonetic coding ability, English pronunciation skills, musical experience, and language aptitude as measured by the MLAT. Parts of all three tests measuring language aptitude correlated positively and significantly with each other, supporting their validity for measuring components of language aptitude. Remarkably, the number of instruments played by subjects showed significant correlations with all language aptitude measures and musicality, whereas, the number of foreign languages did not show any correlations. With regard to the neuroanatomy of auditory cortex, adults with very high scores in the Hindi testing and the musicality test (AMMA) demonstrated a clear predominance of complete posterior HG duplications in the right hemisphere. This may reignite the discussion of the importance of the right hemisphere for language processing, especially when linked or common resources are involved, such as the inter-dependency between phonetic and musical aptitude.

Reduced cortical thickness in Heschl's gyrus as an in vivo marker for human primary auditory cortex

“…The gross morphology of HG demonstrates a remarkably high inter‐individual structural variability (Campain & Minckler, ; Schneider et al, , ; Golestani, Molko, Dehaene, Le Bihan, & Pallier, ; Golestani, Price, & Scott, ; Seither‐Preisler et al, ; Marie et al, , ; Turker et al, ) which is linked to specific functional extensions of AC, particularly in cases of pronounced HG duplications (Wengenroth et al, , ; Serrallach et al, ; Benner et al, ). Here we observed a likewise high inter‐individual variability of CTH across HG, showing that redAC was not always confined to mHG, but varied considerably with respect to size, localization, and anterolateral extension.…”

“…Heschl's gyrus (HG), also known as the anterior transverse temporal gyrus (Penhune, Zatorre, MacDonald, & Evans, ; Destrieux, Fischl, Dale, & Halgren, ), originates medially at the retroinsular region and joins the lateral rim of the supratemporal plane (Rademacher et al, ; Schneider et al, ; Wang, ). Apart from common findings describing single transverse gyri, a multitude of more complex morphological variants of HG have already been observed, namely: sulcus intermedius (SI), indenting partially the transverse gyrus along its mediolateral extension (Penhune et al, ), common stem duplications (CSD), complete posterior duplications (CPD) (Abdul‐Kareem & Sluming, ; Marie et al, ; Marie, Maingault, Crivello, Mazoyer, & Tzourio‐Mazoyer, ; Moerel, De Martino, & Formisano, ), and furthermore multiple duplications (MD) of HG (Benner et al, ; Turker et al, ). Interestingly, the macroscopic gyrification and size of HG have been found to be highly stable already at primary school age (Seither‐Preisler, Parncutt, & Schneider, ).…”

Editorial. Probing the tract organization of language: Heschl’s gyrus fiber intersection area

“…7 This gyrus, known today as Heschl's gyrus, is understood to contain the primary auditory cortex, as it reliably exhibits tonotopic maps 3 (i.e., how sound frequencies map to different locations) presumably originating from the tonotopic maps encoded by the cochleae. Myriad investigations of Heschl's gyrus have been carried out related to many aspects of auditory processing, including developmental maturation, 15 normal auditory processing, 10 disorders of auditory processing such as autism, 18 pitch processing in musicians, 20 and auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia, 2 among many others. A number of techniques have been used to examine the auditory cortex, including transcranial direct current stimulation, 11 PET, 13 magnetoencephalography, 9 and functional MRI (fMRI).…”

Exposure to a musically-enriched environment; Its relationship with executive functions, short-term memory and verbal IQ in primary school children

“…For example, listening to either music or language recruits similar brain structures, e.g. the arcuate fasciculus [ 45 – 47 ] or the Heschel’s Gyrus and Broca’s area [ 44 , 48 ] and therefore supports a possible enhancement of verbal intelligence scores when experiencing music [ 44 – 48 ]. Additionally, multiple studies on the influence of music on sub-components of language e.g.…”