title: Vocal accuracy and neural plasticity following micromelody-discrimination training.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent behavioral studies report correlational evidence to suggest that non-musicians with good pitch discrimination sing more accurately than those with poorer auditory skills. However, other studies have reported a dissociation between perceptual and vocal production skills. In order to elucidate the relationship between auditory discrimination skills and vocal accuracy, we administered an auditory-discrimination training paradigm to a group of non-musicians to determine whether training-enhanced auditory discrimination would specifically result in improved vocal accuracy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We utilized micromelodies (i.e., melodies with seven different interval scales, each smaller than a semitone) as the main stimuli for auditory discrimination training and testing, and we used single-note and melodic singing tasks to assess vocal accuracy in two groups of non-musicians (experimental and control). To determine if any training-induced improvements in vocal accuracy would be accompanied by related modulations in cortical activity during singing, the experimental group of non-musicians also performed the singing tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Following training, the experimental group exhibited significant enhancements in micromelody discrimination compared to controls. However, we did not observe a correlated improvement in vocal accuracy during single-note or melodic singing, nor did we detect any training-induced changes in activity within brain regions associated with singing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given the observations from our auditory training regimen, we therefore conclude that perceptual discrimination training alone is not sufficient to improve vocal accuracy in non-musicians, supporting the suggested dissociation between auditory perception and vocal production.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montréal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. jean.zarate@mail.mcgill.ca
authors.forename: Jean Mary
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Zarate
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Delhommeau
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Zatorre
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009146:Music; D013060:Speech