HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Koelsch, S. Articles by Friederici, A. D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Koelsch, S. Articles by Friederici, A. D.

Children Processing Music: Electric Brain Responses Reveal Musical Competence and Gender Differences

Max-Planck-Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Harvard Medical School

Tobias Grossmann, Thomas C. Gunter and Anja Hahne

Max-Planck-Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

Erich Schröger

Institute of General Psychology, Leipzig

Angela D. Friederici

Max-Planck-Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

Numerous studies investigated physiological correlates of the processing of musical information in adults. How these correlates develop during childhood is poorly understood. In the present study, we measured event-related electric brain potentials elicited in 5- and 9-year-old children while they listened to (major–minor tonal) music. Stimuli were chord sequences, infrequently containing harmonically inappropriate chords. Our results demonstrate that the degree of (in)appropriateness of the chords modified the brain responses in both groups according to music-theoretical principles. This suggests that already 5-year-old children process music according to a well-established cognitive representation of the major–minor tonal system and according to music-syntactic regularities. Moreover, we show that, in contrast to adults, an early negative brain response was left predominant in boys, whereas it was bilateral in girls, indicating a gender difference in children processing music, and revealing that children process music with a hemispheric weighting different from that of adults. Because children process, in contrast to adults, music in the same hemispheres as they process language, results indicate that children process music and language more similarly than adults. This finding might support the notion of a common origin of music and language in the human brain, and concurs with findings that demonstrate the importance of musical features of speech for the acquisition of language.

Key Words: Auditory processing • children • ERP • EEG • music • MMN • ERAN • N5 • gender differences

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. Magne, D. Schon, and M. Besson Musician children detect pitch violations in both music and language better than nonmusician children: behavioral and electrophysiological approaches. J. Cogn. Neurosci., February 1, 2006; 18(2): 199 - 211. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. JENTSCHKE, S. KOELSCH, and A. D. FRIEDERICI Investigating the Relationship of Music and Language in Children: Influences of Musical Training and Language Impairment Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., December 1, 2005; 1060(1): 231 - 242. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Koelsch, T. C. Gunter, M. Wittfoth, and D. Sammler Interaction between Syntax Processing in Language and in Music: An ERP Study J. Cogn. Neurosci., October 1, 2005; 17(10): 1565. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]