2013-09-18 08:46:34
By Melissa Hogenboom Science reporter, BBC News
Moving in time to a steady beat is closely linked to better language skills, a
study suggests.
People who performed better on rhythmic tests also showed enhanced neural
responses to speech sounds.
The researchers suggest that practising music could improve other skills,
particularly speech.
In the Journal of Neuroscience, the authors argue that rhythm is an integral
part of language.
"We know that moving to a steady beat is a fundamental skill not only for music
performance but one that has been linked to language skills," said Nina Kraus,
of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in Illinois.
More than 100 teenagers were asked to tap their fingers along to a beat. Their
accuracy was measured by how closely their responses matched the timing of a
metronome.
Next, in order to understand the biological basis of rhythmic ability, the team
also measured the brainwaves of their participants with electrodes, a technique
called electroencephalography. This was to observe the electrical activity in
the brain in response to sound.
Electroencephalography Those with musical training had enhanced brain responses
to speech sounds
Using this biological approach, the researchers found that those who had better
musical training also had enhanced neural responses to speech sounds. In poorer
readers this response was diminished.
'Neural jitter'
"It turns out that kids who are poor readers have a lot of difficulty doing
this motor task and following the beat. In both speech and music, rhythm
provides a temporal map with signposts to the most likely locations of
meaningful input," Prof Kraus told BBC News.
The brainwaves recorded matched the soundwaves, she said. "You can even take
the recorded brainwave and play it back through your speaker and it will sound
like the soundwave.
"It seems that the same ingredients that are important for reading are
strengthened with musical experience. Musicians have highly consistent
auditory-neural responses.
"It may be that musical training - with its emphasis on rhythmic skills - can
exercise the auditory-system, leading to less neural jitter and stronger
sound-to-meaning associations that are so essential for learning to read,"
added Prof Kraus
John Iversen of the University of California in San Diego studies how the brain
processes music. He was not involved with the research but agreed that musical
training could have important impacts on the brain.
"This study adds another piece to the puzzle in the emerging story suggesting
that musical-rhythmic abilities are correlated with improved performance in
non-music areas, particularly language," he said.