The learning of new words is a challenge that accompanies human beings throughout the entire life span. Although the main electrophysiological markers of word learning have already been described, little is known about the performance-dependent neural machinery underlying this exceptional human faculty. Furthermore, it is currently unknown how word learning abilities are related to verbal memory capacity, auditory attention functions, phonetic discrimination skills, and musicality. Accordingly, we used EEG and examined 40 individuals, who were assigned to two groups (low [LPs] and high performers [HPs]) based on a median split of word learning performance, while they completed a phonetic-based word learning task. Furthermore, we collected behavioral data during an attentive listening and a phonetic discrimination task with the same stimuli to address relationships between auditory attention and phonetic discrimination skills, word learning performance, and musicality. The phonetic-based word learning task, which also included a nonlearning control condition, was sensitive enough to segregate learning-specific and unspecific N200/N400 manifestations along the anterior–posterior topographical axis. Notably, HPs exhibited enhanced verbal memory capacity and we also revealed a performance-dependent spatial N400 pattern, with maximal amplitudes at posterior electrodes in HPs and central maxima in LPs. Furthermore, phonetic-based word learning performance correlated with verbal memory capacity and phonetic discrimination skills, whereas the latter was related to musicality. This experimental approach clearly highlights the multifaceted dimensions of phonetic-based word learning and is helpful to disentangle learning-specific and unspecific ERPs.

On the basis of previous results showing that music training positively influences different aspects of speech perception and cognition, the aim of this series of experiments was to test the hypothesis that adult professional musicians would learn the meaning of novel words through picture–word associations more efficiently than controls without music training (i.e., fewer errors and faster RTs). We also expected musicians to show faster changes in brain electrical activity than controls, in particular regarding the N400 component that develops with word learning. In line with these hypotheses, musicians outperformed controls in the most difficult semantic task. Moreover, although a frontally distributed N400 component developed in both groups of participants after only a few minutes of novel word learning, in musicians this frontal distribution rapidly shifted to parietal scalp sites, as typically found for the N400 elicited by known words. Finally, musicians showed evidence for better long-term memory for novel words 5 months after the main experimental session. Results are discussed in terms of cascading effects from enhanced perception to memory as well as in terms of multifaceted improvements of cognitive processing due to music training. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing that music training influences semantic aspects of language processing in adults. These results open new perspectives for education in showing that early music training can facilitate later foreign language learning. Moreover, the design used in the present experiment can help to specify the stages of word learning that are impaired in children and adults with word learning difficulties.

Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability to identify or produce different pitches without using reference tones. At least two sequential processing stages are assumed to contribute to this phenomenon. The first recruits a pitch memory mechanism at an early stage of auditory processing, whereas the second is driven by a later cognitive mechanism (pitch labeling). Several investigations have used active tasks, but it is unclear how these two mechanisms contribute to AP during passive listening. The present work investigated the temporal dynamics of tone processing in AP and non-AP (NAP) participants by using EEG. We applied a passive oddball paradigm with between- and within-tone category manipulations and analyzed the MMN reflecting the early stage of auditory processing and the P3a response reflecting the later cognitive mechanism during the second processing stage. Results did not reveal between-group differences in MMN waveforms. By contrast, the P3a response was specifically associated with AP and sensitive to the processing of different pitch types. Specifically, AP participants exhibited smaller P3a amplitudes, especially in between-tone category conditions, and P3a responses correlated significantly with the age of commencement of musical training, suggesting an influence of early musical exposure on AP. Our results reinforce the current opinion that the representation of pitches at the processing level of the auditory-related cortex is comparable among AP and NAP participants, whereas the later processing stage is critical for AP. Results are interpreted as reflecting cognitive facilitation in AP participants, possibly driven by the availability of multiple codes for tones.

Currently, there is striking evidence showing that professional musical training can substantially alter the response properties of auditory-related cortical fields. Such plastic changes have previously been shown not only to abet the processing of musical sounds, but likewise spectral and temporal aspects of speech. Therefore, here we used the EEG technique and measured a sample of musicians and nonmusicians while the participants were passively exposed to artificial vowels in the context of an oddball paradigm. Thereby, we evaluated whether increased intracerebral functional connectivity between bilateral auditory-related brain regions may promote sensory specialization in musicians, as reflected by altered cortical N1 and P2 responses. This assumption builds on the reasoning that sensory specialization is dependent, at least in part, on the amount of synchronization between the two auditory-related cortices. Results clearly revealed that auditory-evoked N1 responses were shaped by musical expertise. In addition, in line with our reasoning musicians showed an overall increased intracerebral functional connectivity (as indexed by lagged phase synchronization) in theta, alpha, and beta bands. Finally, within-group correlative analyses indicated a relationship between intracerebral beta band connectivity and cortical N1 responses, however only within the musicians' group. Taken together, we provide first electrophysiological evidence for a relationship between musical expertise, auditory-evoked brain responses, and intracerebral functional connectivity among auditory-related brain regions.

In this study, we used high-density EEG to evaluate whether speech and music expertise has an influence on the categorization of expertise-related and unrelated sounds. With this purpose in mind, we compared the categorization of speech, music, and neutral sounds between professional musicians, simultaneous interpreters (SIs), and controls in response to morphed speech–noise, music–noise, and speech–music continua. Our hypothesis was that music and language expertise will strengthen the memory representations of prototypical sounds, which act as a perceptual magnet for morphed variants. This means that the prototype would “attract” variants. This so-called magnet effect should be manifested by an increased assignment of morphed items to the trained category, by a reduced maximal slope of the psychometric function, as well as by differential event-related brain responses reflecting memory comparison processes (i.e., N400 and P600 responses). As a main result, we provide first evidence for a domain-specific behavioral bias of musicians and SIs toward the trained categories, namely music and speech. In addition, SIs showed a bias toward musical items, indicating that interpreting training has a generic influence on the cognitive representation of spectrotemporal signals with similar acoustic properties to speech sounds. Notably, EEG measurements revealed clear distinct N400 and P600 responses to both prototypical and ambiguous items between the three groups at anterior, central, and posterior scalp sites. These differential N400 and P600 responses represent synchronous activity occurring across widely distributed brain networks, and indicate a dynamical recruitment of memory processes that vary as a function of training and expertise.

Here, we reevaluated the “two-component” model of absolute pitch (AP) by combining behavioral and electrophysiological measurements. This specific model postulates that AP is driven by a perceptual encoding ability (i.e., pitch memory) plus an associative memory component (i.e., pitch labeling). To test these predictions, during EEG measurements AP and non-AP (NAP) musicians were passively exposed to piano tones (first component of the model) and additionally instructed to judge whether combinations of tones and labels were conceptually associated or not (second component of the model). Auditory-evoked N1/P2 potentials did not reveal differences between the two groups, thus indicating that AP is not necessarily driven by a differential pitch encoding ability at the processing level of the auditory cortex. Otherwise, AP musicians performed the conceptual association task with an order of magnitude better accuracy and shorter RTs than NAP musicians did, this result clearly pointing to distinctive conceptual associations in AP possessors. Most notably, this behavioral superiority was reflected by an increased N400 effect and accompanied by a subsequent late positive component, the latter not being distinguishable in NAP musicians.

Several anatomical studies have identified specific anatomical features within the peri-sylvian brain system of absolute pitch (AP) musicians. In this study we used graph theoretical analysis of cortical thickness covariations (as indirect indicator of connectivity) to examine whether AP musicians differ from relative pitch musicians and nonmusicians in small-world network characteristics. We measured “local connectedness” (local clustering = γ), “global efficiency of information transfer” (path length = λ), “small-worldness” (σ = γ/λ), and “degree” centrality as measures of connectivity. Although all groups demonstrated typical small-world features, AP musicians showed significant small-world alterations. “Degree” as a measure of interconnectedness was globally significantly decreased in AP musicians. These differences let us suggest that AP musicians demonstrate diminished neural integration (less connections) among distant brain regions. In addition, AP musicians demonstrated significantly increased local connectivity in peri-sylvian language areas of which the planum temporale, planum polare, Heschl's gyrus, lateral aspect of the superior temporal gyrus, STS, pars triangularis, and pars opercularis were hub regions. All of these brain areas are known to be involved in higher-order auditory processing, working or semantic memory processes. Taken together, whereas AP musicians demonstrate decreased global interconnectedness, the local connectedness in peri-sylvian brain areas is significantly higher than for relative pitch musicians and nonmusicians.

Sex differences in visuospatial cognition (VSC) with male advantage are frequently reported in the literature. There is evidence for sexual dimorphisms in the human brain, one of which postulates more gray matter (GM) in females and more white matter (WM) in males relative to total intracranial volume. We investigated the neuroanatomy of VSC independent of general intelligence (g) in sex-separated populations, homogenous in age, education, memory performance, a memory- and brain morphology-related gene, and g. VSC and g were assessed with the Wechsler adult intelligence scale. The influence of g on VSC was removed using a hierarchical factor analysis and the Schmid–Leiman solution. Structural high-resolution magnetic resonance images were acquired and analyzed with voxel-based morphometry. As hypothesized, the clusters of positive correlations between local volumes and VSC performance independent of g were found mainly in parietal areas, but also in pre- and postcentral regions, predominantly in the WM in males, whereas in females these correlations were located in parietal and superior temporal areas, predominantly in the GM. Our results suggest that VSC depends more strongly on parietal WM structures in males and on parietal GM structures in females. This sex difference might have to do with the increased axonal and decreased somatodendritic tissue in males relative to females. Whether such sex-specific implementations of the VSC network can be explained genetically as suggested in investigations into the Turner syndrome or as a result of structural neural plasticity upon different experience and usage remains to be shown.

Instrumental tones and, in some instances, simple sine-wave tones were shown to evoke stronger auditory-evoked responses in musicians compared to nonmusicians. This effect was taken as an example for plasticity in the auditory cortex elicited by training. To date, however, it is unknown whether an enlarged cortical representation for (instrumental) tones or increased neuronal activity provoked by focused attention in musicians accounts for the reported difference. In an attempt to systematically investigate the influence of attention on the processing of simple sine wave and instrumental tones, we compared auditory-evoked potentials recorded from musicians and nonmusicians. During the electroencephalogram recording, the participants were involved in tasks requiring selective attention to specific sound features such as pitch or timbre. Our results demonstrate that the effect of selective attention on the auditory event-related potential (AEP) has a different time course and shows a different topography than the reproduced effect of music expertise at the N1 component or the previously demonstrated effect at the P2 component. N1 peak potentials were unaffected by attention modulation. These results indicate that the effect of music expertise, which was traced by current density mapping to the auditory cortex, is not primarily caused by selective attention, and it supports the view that increased AEPs on tones in musicians reflect an enlarged neuronal representation for specific sound features of these tones. However, independent from the N1–P2 complex, attention evoked an Nd-like negative component in musicians but not in nonmusicians, which suggests that plasticity also affects top–down processes.

The present study investigates the neural correlates of rhythm processing in speech perception. German pseudosentences spoken with an exaggerated (isochronous) or a conversational (nonisochronous) rhythm were compared in an auditory functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. The subjects had to perform either a rhythm task (explicit rhythm processing) or a prosody task (implicit rhythm processing). The study revealed bilateral activation in the supplementary motor area (SMA), extending into the cingulate gyrus, and in the insulae, extending into the right basal ganglia (neostriatum), as well as activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) related to the performance of the rhythm task. A direct contrast between isochronous and nonisochronous sentences revealed differences in lateralization of activation for isochronous processing as a function of the explicit and implicit tasks. Explicit processing revealed activation in the right posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG), the right supramarginal gyrus, and the right parietal operculum. Implicit processing showed activation in the left supramarginal gyrus, the left pSTG, and the left parietal operculum. The present results indicate a function of the SMA and the insula beyond motor timing and speak for a role of these brain areas in the perception of acoustically temporal intervals. Secondly, the data speak for a specific task-related function of the right IFG in the processing of accent patterns. Finally, the data sustain the assumption that the right secondary auditory cortex is involved in the explicit perception of auditory suprasegmental cues and, moreover, that activity in the right secondary auditory cortex can be modulated by top-down processing mechanisms.