What Keeping A Good Beat Has To Do With Learning To Read

Published

A study from Northwestern University shows a relationship between neural response consistency and ability to keep a beat.

The study is the first to give biological evidence linking the ability to keep a beat to the neural encoding of speech sounds, and has noteworthy implications for reading.

Previous research found a link between reading ability and beat-keeping. Previous research has also established a link between reading ability and neural response consistency.

“By directly linking auditory responses with beat-keeping ability, we have closed the triangle,”

says lead author Nina Kraus, director of Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory.

The current study shows that precise beat-keeping involves synchronization between parts of the brain responsible for hearing as well as movement.

Previous research focused on the motor half of the equation, while Kraus and co-author Adam Tierney focused on the auditory component.

Auditory System Based

Since hearing sounds of speech and associating them with the letters comprising written words is crucial to learning to read, the Northwestern researchers theorized that the association between reading and beat synchronization likely has a common basis in the auditory system.

To investigate the relationship between beat-keeping and auditory processing, 124 Chicago high school students visited Kraus’s lab and were given two tests.

In the first test, they were asked to listen to a metronome and tap their finger along to it on a special tapping pad. Tapping accuracy was computed based on how closely their taps aligned in time to the tick-tock of the metronome.

In a “brainwave test,” the students were fitted with electrodes measuring the consistency of their brain response to a repeated syllable.

Across the population, the more accurate the adolescents were at tapping along to the beat, the more consistent their brain response was to the speech syllable.

Biological Processing Hub

“This is supported biologically. The brainwaves we measured originate from a biological hub of auditory processing with reciprocal connections with the motor-movement centers. An activity that requires coordination of hearing and movement is likely to rely on solid and accurate communication across brain regions,”

Kraus says.

“Rhythm is an integral part of both music and language,” Kraus says. “And the rhythm of spoken language is a crucial cue to understanding.”

As an example, you might slow down your speech or stress one syllable more than another to emphasize a particular point.

Also, minute timing differences distinguish consonants, such as “b” and “p.” Hearing the timing distinction is necessary to identify the sounds with the letters that represent them.

“Musicians have highly consistent auditory-neural responses,” says Kraus. “It may be that musical training—with its emphasis on rhythmic skills—can exercise the auditory-system, leading to less neural jitter and stronger sound-to-meaning associations that are so essential to learning to read.”

Kraus is currently conducting longitudinal investigations that look directly at the effects of music training by measuring beat synchronization, response consistency, reading and other language skills in children as they progress through music instruction from year to year.

Original Study:

The Ability to Move to a Beat Is Linked to the Consistency of Neural Responses to Sound
Adam Tierney, Nina Kraus
The Journal of Neuroscience, 18 September 2013, 33(38): 14981-14988; doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0612-13.2013

Last Updated on December 11, 2023