Sensitive periods for music acquisition

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Sensitive periods are windows of time during which specific environmental information or its absence has a generally lasting impact on the brain and associated behavior (Werker & Hensch, 2015). The question of whether there are sensitive periods for music has inspired a line of research in my laboratory for more than two decades. The present proposal has the long term objectives of (1) increasing understanding of fundamental issues regarding continuity vs discontinuity in the development of basic complex auditory and cognitive processes across the lifespan (2) refining my Plasticity Theory of Music Grammar Acquisition (PTMGA) (Cohen, 2000). Short-term goals are to determine whether adolescents, as compared to young adults, are more able to acquire information about musical style by testing them in cross-sectional-sequential research designs on music-cognitive measures including (a)  preference and short-term retention of popular music of the last decades, (b) learning music in styles differing in familiarity, (c) abstract tasks foundational in music-cognition (d) parallel vocal tasks as well as basic memory tasks and comparable language tasks. Testing will entail presentation of various kinds of music such as popular music of the last five decades and highly controlled musical patterns that lack ecological validity but permit probing specific music-structural relations. We will begin collecting data cross-sectionally in the first year of the grant with high school students of ages 13 -14, 15-16, and university students of age 17 -18, continuing to track them longitudinally in the remaining four years, while adding cohorts annually to build power. Performance patterns may differ for women and men, as females mature sooner, and gender will be an important factor in analysis. Comparing results on preference and musical memory tests for adolescents and young adults will reveal if adolescents are predisposed to process musical stimuli. A comparison of longitudinal measures for the same individuals will further reveal how preference and memory for music of different styles and structures changes with age, from early to later adolescence, and between later adolescence and early adulthood. Analysis of popular music via several methodologies will reveal how the features of popular music change across time and to what extent these changes can be regarded as continuous or discontinuous. The data acquired will enable refinement of the PTMGA, with respect to time and duration of exposure,  and participant characteristics. New knowledge about music processing may inform cognitive models in other domains such as speech acquisition. Finally, the University of Prince Edward laboratory for Research and Training in Auditory Perception and Music Cognition will provide a place for  dedicated students  of every background and culture to acquire and hone research skills of highest calibre in a stimulating interdisciplinary research environment.