In recent years, evidence has been provided that individuals with dyslexia show alterations in the anatomy and function of the auditory cortex. Dyslexia is considered to be a learning disability that affects the development of music and language capacity. We set out to test adolescents and young adults with dyslexia and controls (N = 52) for their neurophysiological differences by investigating the auditory evoked P1–N1–P2 complex. In addition, we assessed their ability in Mandarin, in singing, their musical talent and their individual differences in elementary auditory skills. A discriminant analysis of magnetencephalography (MEG) revealed that individuals with dyslexia showed prolonged latencies in P1, N1, and P2 responses. A correlational analysis between MEG and behavioral variables revealed that Mandarin syllable tone recognition, singing ability and musical aptitude (AMMA) correlated with P1, N1, and P2 latencies, respectively, while Mandarin pronunciation was only associated with N1 latency. The main findings of this study indicate that the earlier P1, N1, and P2 latencies, the better is the singing, the musical aptitude, and the ability to link Mandarin syllable tones to their corresponding syllables. We suggest that this study provides additional evidence that dyslexia can be understood as an auditory and sensory processing deficit.

Research has shown that dyslexia and attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (AD(H)D) are characterized by specific neuroanatomical and neurofunctional differences in the auditory cortex. These neurofunctional characteristics in children with ADHD, ADD and dyslexia are linked to distinct differences in music perception. Group-specific differences in the musical performance of patients with ADHD, ADD and dyslexia have not been investigated in detail so far. We investigated the musical performance and neurophysiological correlates of 21 adolescents with dyslexia, 19 with ADHD, 28 with ADD and 28 age-matched, unaffected controls using a music performance assessment scale and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Musical experts independently assessed pitch and rhythmic accuracy, intonation, improvisation skills and musical expression. Compared to dyslexic adolescents, controls as well as adolescents with ADHD and ADD performed better in rhythmic reproduction, rhythmic improvisation and musical expression. Controls were significantly better in rhythmic reproduction than adolescents with ADD and scored higher in rhythmic and pitch improvisation than adolescents with ADHD. Adolescents with ADD and controls scored better in pitch reproduction than dyslexic adolescents. In pitch improvisation, the ADD group performed better than the ADHD group, and controls scored better than dyslexic adolescents. Discriminant analysis revealed that rhythmic improvisation and musical expression discriminate the dyslexic group from controls and adolescents with ADHD and ADD. A second discriminant analysis based on MEG variables showed that absolute P1 latency asynchrony |R-L| distinguishes the control group from the disorder groups best, while P1 and N1 latencies averaged across hemispheres separate the control, ADD and ADHD groups from the dyslexic group. Furthermore, rhythmic improvisation was negatively correlated with auditory-evoked P1 and N1 latencies, pointing in the following direction: the earlier the P1 and N1 latencies (mean), the better the rhythmic improvisation. These findings provide novel insight into the differences between music processing and performance in adolescents with and without neurodevelopmental disorders. A better understanding of these differences may help to develop tailored preventions or therapeutic interventions.

The research on neural correlates of intentional emotion communication by the music performer is still limited. In this study, we attempted to evaluate EEG patterns recorded from musicians who were instructed to perform a simple piano score while manipulating their manner of play to express specific contrasting emotions and self-rate the emotion they reflected on the scales of arousal and valence. In the emotional playing task, participants were instructed to improvise variations in a manner by which the targeted emotion is communicated. In contrast, in the neutral playing task, participants were asked to play the same piece precisely as written to obtain data for control over general patterns of motor and sensory activation during playing. The spectral analysis of the signal was applied as an initial step to be able to connect findings to the wider field of music-emotion research. The experimental contrast of emotional playing vs. neutral playing was employed to probe brain activity patterns differentially involved in distinct emotional states. The tasks of emotional and neutral playing differed considerably with respect to the state of intended-to-transfer emotion arousal and valence levels. The EEG activity differences were observed between distressed/excited and neutral/depressed/relaxed playing.

Previous research suggests that musical ability is associated with language processing and foreign language pronunciation. Whether musical ability is associated with the ability to generate intelligible unfamiliar utterances has not been investigated. Furthermore, how unfamiliar languages are perceived has rarely been related to musical ability. We tested 80 healthy adults, with a mean age of 34.05 and a combination of 41 women and 39 men. We used batteries of perceptual and generational music and language measures to assess foreign language intelligibility and musical capacity. Regression analysis revealed that five measures explained the variance in the intelligibility of unfamiliar foreign utterances. These were short-term memory capacity, melodic singing ability, speech perception ability, and how melodic and memorable the utterances sounded to the participants. Correlational analyses revealed that musical aptitude measures are related to melodic perception and how memorable unfamiliar utterances sound, whereas singing aptitude is related to the perceived difficulty level of the language material. These findings provide novel evidence of the link between musical and speech abilities. In particular, intelligibility measures are associated with singing aptitude and how melodic languages appear to be. As impressions on how foreign languages are perceived are also related to musical capacities, perceptual language parameters address a new perspective that facilitates the understanding of the link between music and language in general.

Research on singing and language abilities has gained considerable interest in the past decade. While several studies about singing ability and language capacity have been published, investigations on individual differences in singing behavior during childhood and its relationship to language capacity in adulthood have largely been neglected. We wanted to focus our study on whether individuals who had sung more often during childhood than their peers were also better in language and music capacity during adulthood. We used questionnaires to assess singing behavior of adults during childhood and tested them for their singing ability, their music perception skills, and their ability to perceive and pronounce unfamiliar languages. The results have revealed that the more often individuals had sung during childhood, the better their singing ability and language pronunciation skills were, while the amount of childhood singing was less predictive on music and language perception skills. We suggest that the amount of singing during childhood seems to influence the ability to sing and the ability to acquire foreign language pronunciation later in adulthood.

The neural correlates of intentional emotion transfer by the music performer are not well investigated as the present-day research mainly focuses on the assessment of emotions evoked by music. In this study, we aim to determine whether EEG connectivity patterns can reflect differences in information exchange during emotional playing. The EEG data were recorded while subjects were performing a simple piano score with contrasting emotional intentions and evaluated the subjectively experienced success of emotion transfer. The brain connectivity patterns were assessed from the EEG data using the Granger Causality approach. The effective connectivity was analyzed in different frequency bands—delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma. The features that (1) were able to discriminate between the neutral baseline and the emotional playing and (2) were shared across conditions, were used for further comparison. The low frequency bands—delta, theta, alpha—showed a limited number of connections (4 to 6) contributing to the discrimination between the emotional playing conditions. In contrast, a dense pattern of connections between regions that was able to discriminate between conditions (30 to 38) was observed in beta and gamma frequency ranges. The current study demonstrates that EEG-based connectivity in beta and gamma frequency ranges can effectively reflect the state of the networks involved in the emotional transfer through musical performance, whereas utility of the low frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha) remains questionable.