Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics
Congenital amusia is an inborn neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch processing, which also induces impairment in lexical tone perception. However, it has not been examined before how the brain specialization of lexical tone perception is affected in amusics. The current study adopted the dichotic...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01411/full |
| _version_ | 1818031967545851904 |
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| author | Jing Shao Jing Shao Caicai Zhang Caicai Zhang |
| author_facet | Jing Shao Jing Shao Caicai Zhang Caicai Zhang |
| author_sort | Jing Shao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Congenital amusia is an inborn neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch processing, which also induces impairment in lexical tone perception. However, it has not been examined before how the brain specialization of lexical tone perception is affected in amusics. The current study adopted the dichotic listening paradigm to examine this issue, testing 18 Cantonese-speaking amusics and 18 matched controls on pitch/lexical tone identification and discrimination in three conditions: non-speech tone, low syllable variation, and high syllable variation. For typical listeners, the discrimination accuracy was higher with shorter RT in the left ear regardless of the stimulus types, suggesting a left-ear advantage in discrimination. When the demand of phonological processing increased, as in the identification task, shorter RT was still obtained in the left ear, however, the identification accuracy revealed a bilateral pattern. Taken together, the results of the identification task revealed a reduced LEA or a shift from the right hemisphere to bilateral processing in identification. Amusics exhibited overall poorer performance in both identification and discrimination tasks, indicating that pitch/lexical tone processing in dichotic listening settings was impaired, but there was no evidence that amusics showed different ear preference from controls. These findings provided temporary evidence that although amusics demonstrate deficient neural mechanisms of pitch/lexical tone processing, their ear preference patterns might not be affected. These results broadened the understanding of the nature of pitch and lexical tone processing deficiencies in amusia. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T05:59:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b8efbf0cc7394768bf6d2f8ea7be4a27 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T05:59:53Z |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-b8efbf0cc7394768bf6d2f8ea7be4a272022-12-22T01:59:51ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-07-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.01411539248Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital AmusicsJing Shao0Jing Shao1Caicai Zhang2Caicai Zhang3School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, ChinaShenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, ChinaDepartment of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaResearch Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaCongenital amusia is an inborn neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch processing, which also induces impairment in lexical tone perception. However, it has not been examined before how the brain specialization of lexical tone perception is affected in amusics. The current study adopted the dichotic listening paradigm to examine this issue, testing 18 Cantonese-speaking amusics and 18 matched controls on pitch/lexical tone identification and discrimination in three conditions: non-speech tone, low syllable variation, and high syllable variation. For typical listeners, the discrimination accuracy was higher with shorter RT in the left ear regardless of the stimulus types, suggesting a left-ear advantage in discrimination. When the demand of phonological processing increased, as in the identification task, shorter RT was still obtained in the left ear, however, the identification accuracy revealed a bilateral pattern. Taken together, the results of the identification task revealed a reduced LEA or a shift from the right hemisphere to bilateral processing in identification. Amusics exhibited overall poorer performance in both identification and discrimination tasks, indicating that pitch/lexical tone processing in dichotic listening settings was impaired, but there was no evidence that amusics showed different ear preference from controls. These findings provided temporary evidence that although amusics demonstrate deficient neural mechanisms of pitch/lexical tone processing, their ear preference patterns might not be affected. These results broadened the understanding of the nature of pitch and lexical tone processing deficiencies in amusia.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01411/fullcongenital amusiadichotic listeningear preferencelexical tone perceptionCantonese |
| spellingShingle | Jing Shao Jing Shao Caicai Zhang Caicai Zhang Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics Frontiers in Psychology congenital amusia dichotic listening ear preference lexical tone perception Cantonese |
| title | Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics |
| title_full | Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics |
| title_fullStr | Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics |
| title_short | Dichotic Perception of Lexical Tones in Cantonese-Speaking Congenital Amusics |
| title_sort | dichotic perception of lexical tones in cantonese speaking congenital amusics |
| topic | congenital amusia dichotic listening ear preference lexical tone perception Cantonese |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01411/full |
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