https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/pdf/S1364-6613(00)01816-7.pdf

Structure and function of auditory cortex: music and speech

1. Introduction 2. Sound Elements: Pitch and Timbre 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Musical Sound Systems 2.3 Linguistic Sound Systems 2.4 Sound Category Learning as a Key Link 2.5 Conclusion Appendixes 3. Rhythm 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Rhythm in Music 3.3 Rhythm in Speech 3.4 Interlude: Rhythm in Poetry and Song 3.5 Non-Periodic Aspects of Rhythm as a Key Link 3.6 Conclusion Appendixes 4. Melody 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Melody in Music: Comparisons to Speech 4.3 Speech Melody: Links to Music 4.4 Interlude: Musical and Linguistic Melody in Song 4.5 Melodic Statistics and Melodic Contour as Key Links 4.6 Conclusion Appendix 5. Syntax 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The Structural Richness of Musical Syntax 5.3 Formal Differences and Similarities between Musical and Linguistic Syntax 5.4 Neural Resources for Syntactic Integration as a Key Link 5.5 Conclusion 6. Meaning 6.1 Introduction 6.2 A Brief Taxonomy of Musical Meaning 6.3 Linguistic Meaning in Relation to Music 6.4 Interlude: Linguistic and Musical Meaning in Song 6.5 The Expression and Appraisal of Emotion as a Key Link 6.6 Conclusion 7. Evolution 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Language and Natural Selection 7.3 Music and Natural Selection 7.4 Music and Evolution: Neither Adaptation nor Frill 7.5 Beat-Based Rhythm Processing as a Key Research Area 7.6 Conclusion Appendix Afterword References List of Sound Examples Lis of Credits Author Index Subject Index

Music, Language, and the Brain

The comparative study of music and language is drawing an increasing amount of research interest. Like language, music is a human universal involving perceptually discrete elements organized into hierarchically structured sequences. Music and language can thus serve as foils for each other in the study of brain mechanisms underlying complex sound processing, and comparative research can provide novel insights into the functional and neural architecture of both domains. This review focuses on syntax, using recent neuroimaging data and cognitive theory to propose a specific point of convergence between syntactic processing in language and music. This leads to testable predictions, including the prediction that that syntactic comprehension problems in Broca's aphasia are not selective to language but influence music perception as well.

Language, music, syntax and the brain.

The RAVDESS is a validated multimodal database of emotional speech and song. The database is gender balanced consisting of 24 professional actors, vocalizing lexically-matched statements in a neutral North American accent. Speech includes calm, happy, sad, angry, fearful, surprise, and disgust expressions, and song contains calm, happy, sad, angry, and fearful emotions. Each expression is produced at two levels of emotional intensity, with an additional neutral expression. All conditions are available in face-and-voice, face-only, and voice-only formats. The set of 7356 recordings were each rated 10 times on emotional validity, intensity, and genuineness. Ratings were provided by 247 individuals who were characteristic of untrained research participants from North America. A further set of 72 participants provided test-retest data. High levels of emotional validity and test-retest intrarater reliability were reported. Corrected accuracy and composite "goodness" measures are presented to assist researchers in the selection of stimuli. All recordings are made freely available under a Creative Commons license and can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1188976.

/pdf/the-ryerson-audio-visual-database-of-emotional-speech-and-jx71tsx3ts.pdf

The Ryerson Audio-Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song (RAVDESS): A dynamic, multimodal set of facial and vocal expressions in North American English

The Evolution of Language

The condition of congenital amusia, commonly known as tone-deafness, has been described for more than a century, but has received little empirical attention. In the present study, a research effort has been made to document in detail the behavioural manifestations of congenital amusia. A group of 11 adults, fitting stringent criteria of musical disabilities, were examined in a series of tests originally designed to assess the presence and specificity of musical disorders in brain-damaged patients. The results show that congenital amusia is related to severe deficiencies in processing pitch variations. The deficit extends to impairments in music memory and recognition as well as in singing and the ability to tap in time to music. Interestingly, the disorder appears specific to the musical domain. Congenital amusical individuals process and recognize speech, including speech prosody, common environmental sounds and human voices, as well as control subjects. Thus, the present study convincingly demonstrates the existence of congenital amusia as a new class of learning disabilities that affect musical abilities.

/pdf/congenital-amusia-a-group-study-of-adults-afflicted-with-a-57uv3ohqbi.pdf

Congenital amusia: a group study of adults afflicted with a music-specific disorder.

Congenital Amusia: A Disorder of Fine-Grained Pitch Discrimination

The objective of the study is to evaluate if the rupture of an aneurysm located on the middle cerebral artery (MCA) results in disorders of music recognition. To this aim, 20 patients having undergone brain surgery for the clipping of a unilateral left (LBS), right (RBS) or bilateral (BBS) aneurysm(s) of the MCA and 20 neurologically intact control subjects (NC) were evaluated with a series of tests assessing most of the abilities involved in music recognition. In general, the study shows that a ruptured aneurysm on the MCA that is repaired by brain surgery is very likely to produce deficits in the auditory processing of music. The incidence of such a deficit was not only very high but also selective. The results show that the LBS group was more impaired than the NC group in all three tasks involving musical long-term memory. The study also uncovered two new cases of apperceptive agnosia for music. These two patients (N.R. and R.C.) were diagnosed as such because both exhibit a clear deficit in each of the three music memory tasks and both are impaired in all discrimination tests involving musical perception. Interestingly, the lesions overlap in the right superior temporal lobe and in the right insula, making the two new cases very similar to an earlier case report. Altogether, the results are also consistent with the view that apperceptive agnosia results from damage to right hemispheric structures while associative agnosia results from damage to the left hemisphere.

/pdf/patterns-of-music-agnosia-associated-with-middle-cerebral-l5yt7wvbir.pdf

Patterns of music agnosia associated with middle cerebral artery infarcts

Music, like language, is a universal and specific trait Isabelle Peretz,1,2,8 Julie Ayotte,1,2 Robert J. Zatorre,3 Jacques Mehler,4,5 Pierre Ahad,6 Virginia B. Penhune,7 and Benoit Jutras2 to humans. Similarly, music appreciation, like language 1 Department of Psychology comprehension, appears to be the product of a dediUniversity of Montreal cated brain organization (Peretz and Morais, 1993). AcC.P. 6128 succursale Centre-ville cordingly, as with language, normal acquisition of musiMontreal, Quebec H3C 3J7 cal competence is expected to recruit and fine tune 2 Research Centre distinct neural networks in the human brain. In the adInstitut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal vent of a slight but congenital neural deviation, selective 4565 Queen Mary deficits of learning may occur. Indeed, some individuals Montreal, Quebec H3W 1W5 suffer from language-specific disorders, and a large re3 Montreal Neurological Institute search effort has been undertaken to understand the McGill University origin and varieties of these disorders. Some research3801 University ers claim that language impairments arise from failures Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B4 specific to language or cognitive processing (StuddertCanada Kennedy and Mody, 1995). Others hold that language 4 International School for Advanced Studies deficiencies result from a more elemental problem that Cognitive Neuroscience makes individuals unable to hear fine acoustic temporal via Beirut 4 changes (Tallal and Piercy, 1973). Nothing comparable 34014 Trieste has been initiated in the musical domain. Italy The possibility that certain persons are born with a 5 L.S.C.P. 54 specific musical deficit has been envisaged for more Boulevard Raspail than a century (Grant-Allen, 1878; Geshwind, 1984). 75006 Paris However, the evidence rests on anecdotal case descripFrance tions. In this paper, we present the study of a female 6 Psychology Department volunteer, Monica, who manifests a music-specific disMcGill University order, sometimes called tone deafness but for which 1205 Dr. Penfield we prefer the term “congenital amusia”. The term better Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1 reflects the likelihood that there are multiple forms of 7 Psychology Department music developmental disorders, as there are various Concordia University patterns of acquired amusia resulting from brain acci7141 Sherbrooke W. dent (Marin and Perry, 1999). Montreal, Quebec H4B1R6

Julie Ayotte

Papers

Congenital amusia: a group study of adults afflicted with a music-specific disorder.

Congenital Amusia: A Disorder of Fine-Grained Pitch Discrimination

Patterns of music agnosia associated with middle cerebral artery infarcts

Congenital Amusia: A Disorder of Case Study Fine-Grained Pitch Discrimination