Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy; Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Human Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Brain Lang. 2023 Nov;246:105345. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105345. Epub 2023 Oct 31.
Based on the idea that neural entrainment establishes regular attentional fluctuations that facilitate hierarchical processing in both music and language, we hypothesized that individual differences in syntactic (grammatical) skills will be partly explained by patterns of neural responses to musical rhythm. To test this hypothesis, we recorded neural activity using electroencephalography (EEG) while children (N = 25) listened passively to rhythmic patterns that induced different beat percepts. Analysis of evoked beta and gamma activity revealed that individual differences in the magnitude of neural responses to rhythm explained variance in six-year-olds' expressive grammar abilities, beyond and complementarily to their performance in a behavioral rhythm perception task. These results reinforce the idea that mechanisms of neural beat entrainment may be a shared neural resource supporting hierarchical processing across music and language and suggest a relevant marker of the relationship between rhythm processing and grammar abilities in elementary-school-age children, previously observed only behaviorally.
基于神经同步建立规则的注意力波动从而促进音乐和语言中层次化处理的观点，我们假设个体在句法（语法）技能上的差异部分可以通过对音乐节奏的神经反应模式来解释。为了验证这一假设，我们使用脑电图（EEG）记录了儿童（N=25）被动聆听诱导出不同节拍感知的节奏模式时的神经活动。对诱发β和γ活动的分析表明，个体对节奏的神经反应幅度差异解释了 6 岁儿童表达语法能力的差异，这超出并补充了他们在行为节奏感知任务中的表现。这些结果强化了神经节拍同步机制可能是支持音乐和语言中层次化处理的共享神经资源的观点，并为以前仅在行为层面上观察到的节奏处理与语法能力之间的关系提供了一个相关的标志物。
