Abstract: Children with developmental language disorders have been shown to be impaired not only in language processing, but also in rhythm and meter perception. We tested the influence of external rhythmic auditory stimulation (i.e., musical rhythms) on syntax processing in children with specific language impairment and children and adults with dyslexia, using behavioral and electrophysiological measurements. Grammaticality judgments for auditorily presented (correct or incorrect) sentences were better after regular musical prime sequences than after irregular sequences or baseline sequences. In addition, the P600, an electrophysiological marker for processing grammatical errors, was enhanced after regular prime sequences. We also collected data for temporal processing in dyslexic adults and are now extending the investigation of a potential beneficial prime effect to other linguistic features. Our findings are interpreted within the Dynamic Attending Theory (Jones, 1976) and the Temporal Sampling (oscillatory) Framework for developmental language disorders (Goswami, 2011). They encourage the use of rhythmic structures (even in non-verbal materials) to boost linguistic structure processing and outline perspectives for rehabilitation.
Barbara Tillmann is CNRS Research Director (DR1), Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, and Team leader for “Auditory Cognition & Psychoacoustics.” Barbara studies both language and music, including their memory aspects. A focus of her research is about people who show a so-called musical disorder called 'Amusia'. Barbara has won several prizes for her research.