TY - JOUR
T1 - Brain, musicality, and language aptitude: A complex interplay
AU - Turker, Sabrina
AU - Reiterer, Susanne Maria
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Music and language are highly intertwined auditory phenomena that largely overlap on behavioral and neural levels. While the link between the two has been widely explored on a general level, comparably few studies have addressed the relationship between musical skills and language aptitude, defined as an individual's (partly innate) capacity for learning foreign languages. Behaviorally, past research has provided evidence that individuals' musicality levels (expressed by singing, instrument playing, and/or perceptive musical abilities) are significantly associated with their foreign language learning, particularly the acquisition of phonetic and phonological skills (e.g., pronunciation, speech imitation). On the neural level, both skills recruit a wide array of overlapping brain areas, which are also involved in cognition and memory.The neurobiology of language aptitude is an area ripe for investigation, since there has been only limited research establishing neurofunctional and neuroanatomical markers characteristic of speech imitation and overall language aptitude (e.g., in the left/right auditory cortex and left inferior parietal areas of the brain). Thus, as noted above, in this short review for ARAL, the aim is to describe the most recent neuroscientific findings on the neurobiology of language aptitude, to discuss the complex interplay between language aptitude and musicality from neural and behavioral perspectives, and to briefly outline what the promise of future research in this area holds.
AB - Music and language are highly intertwined auditory phenomena that largely overlap on behavioral and neural levels. While the link between the two has been widely explored on a general level, comparably few studies have addressed the relationship between musical skills and language aptitude, defined as an individual's (partly innate) capacity for learning foreign languages. Behaviorally, past research has provided evidence that individuals' musicality levels (expressed by singing, instrument playing, and/or perceptive musical abilities) are significantly associated with their foreign language learning, particularly the acquisition of phonetic and phonological skills (e.g., pronunciation, speech imitation). On the neural level, both skills recruit a wide array of overlapping brain areas, which are also involved in cognition and memory.The neurobiology of language aptitude is an area ripe for investigation, since there has been only limited research establishing neurofunctional and neuroanatomical markers characteristic of speech imitation and overall language aptitude (e.g., in the left/right auditory cortex and left inferior parietal areas of the brain). Thus, as noted above, in this short review for ARAL, the aim is to describe the most recent neuroscientific findings on the neurobiology of language aptitude, to discuss the complex interplay between language aptitude and musicality from neural and behavioral perspectives, and to briefly outline what the promise of future research in this area holds.
KW - ACQUISITION
KW - COMPREHENSION
KW - EXPERTISE
KW - FOREIGN-LANGUAGE
KW - FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY
KW - INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
KW - PLASTICITY
KW - PROFICIENCY
KW - PRONUNCIATION
KW - SPEECH
KW - individual differences
KW - language aptitude
KW - language learning
KW - musicality
KW - neurobiology of language
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102204105&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0267190520000148
DO - 10.1017/S0267190520000148
M3 - Article
SN - 0267-1905
VL - 41
SP - 95
EP - 107
JO - Annual Review of Applied Linguistics
JF - Annual Review of Applied Linguistics
ER -