Refereed journal article or data article (A1)
Neural Encoding of Pitch Direction Is Enhanced in Musically Trained Children and Is Related to Reading Skills
List of Authors: Putkinen V, Huotilainen M, Tervaniemi M
Publisher: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
Publication year: 2019
Journal: Frontiers in Psychology
Journal name in source: FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Journal acronym: FRONT PSYCHOL
Article number: ARTN 1475
Volume number: 10
Number of pages: 7
ISSN: 1664-1078
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01475
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/41732658
Musical training in childhood has been linked to enhanced sound encoding at different stages of the auditory processing. In the current study, we used auditory event-related potentials to investigate cortical sound processing in 9- to 15-year-old children (N = 88) with and without musical training. Specifically, we recorded the mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a responses in an oddball paradigm consisting of standard tone pairs with ascending pitch and deviant tone pairs with descending pitch. A subsample of the children (N = 44) also completed a standardized test of reading ability. The musically trained children showed a larger P3a response to the deviant sound pairs. Furthermore, the amplitude of the P3a correlated with a pseudo-word reading test score. These results corroborate previous findings on enhanced sound encoding in musically trained children and are in line with studies suggesting that neural discrimination of spectrotemporal sound patterns is predictive of reading ability.
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