Ivan Turner
Reading for Besson_et_al2007 This article describes a series of experiments that were designed to determine the influence of musical expertise on pitch processing in both music and language. The results from these experiments could possibly show a connection between how music and language are perceived and processed in the brain. I think this is particularly interesting because if the experiments can accurately show how much of an influence musical expertise has on pitch processing, then researchers could possibly determine methods to use musical training to affect how a person perceives musical and language sounds. The hypothesis tested in this article is that musical expertise, by increasing pitch discrimination, will improve pitch processing. The researchers used both the behavioral method and the electrophysiological method to test the hypothesis. In the first study, several musician and non-musician adults and children were tested and asked to determine whether the final note or word in a selected musical or linguistic phrase was normal or strange to them. In another study, a group of dyslexic children and a control group of children were tested using a speech pitch discrimination task. The results of the initial tests show that musical expertise improved pitch processing in both music and speech. Results show that after six months of musical training children could detect small pitch changes in both speech and music. The results of the longitudinal studies show that the positive effects of musical expertise are linked with musical practice and not necessarily a predisposition for music. After examining the dyslexic children, a strong link was found between basic
