Taking an interdisciplinary, multimethodological and integrated approach, the CAASD project examined various cognitive, neural, and emotional processes in music and language, by investigating the relationships between the brain and behaviour, music and language processing, tone and non-tonal languages, and theoretical and practical implications. In particular, we used a wide range of state-of-the-art experimental paradigms in our behavioural and EEG studies, including cross-modal affective priming, semantic priming, speech/song imitation, sentence repetition, category learning, adaptive tracking pitch thresholds, psychophysical reverse correlation, melodic/sentence cloze task, and neural signal processing.
Among many of our findings, our results on the mental representations of pitch contours, pitch and cognitive processing, speech and song imitation, and perceptual adaptation of speech categories advanced the research field of music, language, and the brain beyond the state of the art in significant ways. Firstly, we advocate applying advanced technologies in the studies of music and language processing, e.g. using reverse-correlation to uncover mental representations of speech and musical contours. Secondly, it is important to take an individual differences approach to understanding characteristics of pitch, music, and language processing among different populations. Thirdly, our findings from music and language processing also have implications for theories and practice regarding social communication and social interactions, especially considering the role of music in promoting collective interactions and social bonding. Finally, there are intimate links between individuals’ pitch, cognitive, music, language, and reading abilities. Examining the mechanisms of music and language processing would benefit from investigating a range of populations, including CA, ASD, dyslexia, William syndrome, musicians, non-musicians, tone language speakers, individuals from different cultures, an approach we have adopted through collaborations across the globe.
Using CA and ASD as a theoretical and experimental challenge, we have taken the research on music and language processing beyond the status quo by producing a variety of empirical data (acoustic spoken/sung data, perceptual measures, and brain waves) and uncovering the underlying mechanisms of the human music and language cognition.
