Musical aptitude and foreign language learning skills - neural and behavioral evidence about their connections

Abstract

Perceiving music and language seems to depend upon subtle and accurate auditory processing skills. Could music and language also share common neural resources? Possible interaction between music and speech memory systems has not been ruled out. On the contrary, there is increasing evidence pointing out the accuracy at perceiving phonetic contrasts in native or foreign language of subjects with musical aptitude or musical training. The main focus of this study was to examine the relationship between musical aptitude and linguistic abilities, especially in terms of second language pronunciation skills. We examined 10-12-year-old elementary school children’s ability to preattentively process musical features in music and speech stimuli. Sound processing accuracy was examined by means of event-related potential (ERP) recordings and behavioural measures. Those children with superior performance in foreign language production and musicality tests seem to show more pronounced sound-change-evoked activation in response to the music stimuli than subjects with less accurate linguistic skills. Our study provides further evidence for the claim that musical aptitude and linguistic skills are interconnected.