Sensitive periods for music acquisition

敏感期是特定环境信息或其缺失对大脑和相关行为产生普遍持久影响的时间窗口（Werker & Hensch, 2015）。二十多年来，音乐是否存在敏感期的问题激发了我实验室的一系列研究。目前的建议有以下长期目标：(1)增加对基本复杂听觉和认知过程在整个生命周期中发展的连续性和非连续性的基本问题的理解(2)完善我的音乐语法习得的可塑性理论（PTMGA） （Cohen, 2000）。短期目标是确定青少年，与年轻人相比，是否更能够获得音乐风格的信息，通过测试他们在音乐认知措施的横断面顺序研究设计中，包括(a)对过去几十年流行音乐的偏好和短期保留，(b)学习不同熟悉风格的音乐，(c)音乐认知基础的抽象任务(d)平行声乐任务、基本记忆任务和类似语言任务。测试将需要呈现各种音乐，如过去五十年的流行音乐和高度控制的音乐模式，这些音乐模式缺乏生态有效性，但允许探索特定的音乐结构关系。我们将在资助的第一年开始对13 -14岁、15-16岁的高中生和17 -18岁的大学生进行横断面数据收集，在剩下的四年中继续纵向跟踪他们，同时每年增加队列以建立力量。女性和男性的表现模式可能不同，因为女性成熟得更快，性别将是分析中的重要因素。比较青少年和青年的偏好和音乐记忆测试结果将揭示青少年是否倾向于处理音乐刺激。对同一个体进行纵向测量的比较将进一步揭示对不同风格和结构的音乐的偏好和记忆是如何随着年龄的变化而变化的，从青春期早期到青春期晚期，从青春期晚期到成年早期。通过几种方法分析流行音乐将揭示流行音乐的特征如何随着时间的推移而变化，以及这些变化在多大程度上可以被视为连续或不连续的。所获得的数据将使PTMGA在暴露时间和持续时间以及参与者特征方面得到改进。关于音乐处理的新知识可能会为其他领域的认知模型提供信息，比如语音习得。最后，爱德华王子大学听觉感知和音乐认知研究与训练实验室将为各种背景和文化的学生提供一个地方，在一个刺激的跨学科研究环境中获得和磨练最高水平的研究技能。

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.