Entraining the Brain: Applications to Language Research and Links to Musical Entrainment
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Date
2012-01
Authors
Goswami, Usha
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Empirical Musicology Review
Abstract
Clayton’s paper provides a clear and accessible summary of the significance of entrainment for music making, and for human behaviour in general. He notes the central role of metrical structure in musical entrainment, the possible role of oscillatory neural activity, and the core notion of phase alignment. Here I show how these same factors are central to speech processing by the human brain. I argue that entrainment to metrical structure is core to linguistic as well as musical human behaviour. I illustrate this view using entrainment data from developmental dyslexia. The core role of entrainment in efficient speech processing suggests that language difficulties in childhood may benefit from music-based remediation that focuses on multi-modal rhythmic entrainment. Alignment of linguistic and musical metrical structure seems likely to be fundamental to successful remediation.
Description
Keywords
entrainment, amplitude envelope, oscillations, rise time
Citation
Empirical Musicology Review, v7 n1-2 (Jan-Apr 2012), 57-63