<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Many thanks to David Bashwiner for his thorough answer to Amy’s question—a fine “teachable moment”(!).<div><br></div><div>And just a note to second the gist of David’s summary: many of these studies involve what might, at best, be called “quasi musical stimuli,” and involve participants at vastly different stages of auditory development and enculturation (from newborns to geriatrics). So, it is indeed murky just how this student’s “deafness in her left ear” (which, as David points out, may arise at any number of points in the auditory pathway) would affect her aural skills performance, which is not to say there isn’t some significant effect.</div><div><br></div><div>All best,</div><div>Justin </div><div><br><div><div>On Oct 5, 2014, at 2:56 PM, David Bashwiner <<a href="mailto:david.bashwiner@gmail.com">david.bashwiner@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div><div>Amy,<br><br></div><div>I get the sense you're
most interested in practical evidence, but I found myself intrigued with
your question and thought I'd send you some slightly more theoretical
thoughts. In short, I would say that while differences can be found in
processing styles found in the left and right hemispheres (specifically
for auditory processing), the differences are not black-and-white. I've
grouped these thoughts into anatomical considerations, neuropsychological considerations, and music-specific neuro-cognitive considerations. <br><br></div><div>I suppose I should mention that I'm not an MD, so anything that piques your interest you should verify with someone who is. <br></div><div><br></div><div><b><u>Anatomical Considerations</u></b><br>One
thing you mention having read is that "we use our left ears almost
exclusively for" the purpose of "reproducing and recognizing pitch
height." I don't have proof that this isn't true, but I personally would
shy away from accepting it without further investigation (and I'd love
to take a look at the article you mention). It is clear that, if you
look at neural pathways from each ear to each side of the brain, you
will find a favoring for contralateral information flow: i.e., a slight
tendency for sounds coming in through the left ear to be processed by
the right side of the brain, and vice versa. I say "favoring" and
"slight," however, since the percentage ratio is not 100%-0% (as it is for
vision), but is more like 60%-40% (at least to the best of my
knowledge). There is, in addition, a significant amount of "cross-talk"
across the hemispheres, at brainstem levels and via the corpus callosum
in the neocortex. If you take a look at <a href="http://web.squ.edu.om/med-Lib/MED_CD/E_CDs/anesthesia/site/content/figures/3035F10.gif" target="_blank">this figure</a>,
which traces the path of information flow from the left cochlea up the
brainstem to the auditory cortex, you can see that most of the
connections go to the contralateral side but that some do stay on the
ipsilateral side. Thus, in theory at least, sound entering the right ear should be processed at least somewhat in the right auditory cortex.<br></div><div><br></div><div>It is worth noting that
if your student is "deaf in her left ear," the deafness could
conceivably be the result of damage at any one of these multiple points—ear drum, cochlea, auditory nerve, cochlear nucleus, inferior colliculus, auditory cortex, etc. It might
be worth a visit to a neurologist or otolaryngologist to determine where origin of the deficit is. That visit could
give you some clues on how to deal with her musical issues. <br></div><div><br></div><div><b><u>Neuropsychological </u></b><b><u>Considerations</u></b><br>There
is much debate regarding how music-specific the right hemisphere is,
and how speech-specific the left hemisphere is. It seems that most
researchers agree with a hypothesis advanced by <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11849614" target="_blank">Robert Zatorre and colleagues in around 2002</a> (dating at least back to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8921202" target="_blank">Penhune et al. 1996</a>) that the left hemisphere is not specialized for the processing speech <i>per se</i>, but rather is specialized for the processing of <i>rapid information flow</i>. Music <i>can</i> be fast, but speech virtually <i>always is</i>.
Similarly, distinctions in speech tend to be simple binaries, such as
"was that /b/ or /p/?" The left side of the (auditory) brain thus
appears to be specialized for <i>rapidly resolving yes-no binaries</i>, the right for indulging in the contemplation of spectral complexity. There is anatomical support for this as well: the left Heschl's
gyrus (primary auditory cortex) has more white matter than gray,
relative to the right HG—white matter translating to more myelination
and hence faster transmission in neurons, but fewer neurons altogether. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/107/10/4758.short" target="_blank">A recent study from Stefan Koelsch's lab</a> reports that music-specific processing is biased toward the right hemisphere as early as a few hours after birth. <br><br>From the above it should be clear that there's a general acknowledgement in the scientific community
that the right and left sides of the brain (at least auditory cortices)
do have different <i>processing styles</i>. Nevertheless, this does not
translate directly to speech-perception on the left and music-perception
on the right. In primates as well as humans, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3398142/" target="_blank">regions in <i>both</i> the right and left sides of the brain</a> are specially sensitive to the vocal sounds of conspecifics.
We process both speech and music simultaneously along <i>multiple parallel channels</i>, some
subserved more by left-side networks, some more by right-side networks.
Moreover, there's significant redundancy, such that whenever a right-side region shows activation for a given task, at least some activation (if less) is seen on the left as well. I don't have a
paper I can cite on this, but that's my sense from my familiarity with
the literature. <br><br></div><div>In sum, the right and left auditory
cortices do seem to have different strengths, and hence different
processing styles. But there's redundancy as well, with right side activations tending to be mirrored by left-side activations as well. The right and left auditory cortices are probably better
thought to differ in <i>degree rather than in kind. </i><br></div><div><u><br><b>Musico-Neurological </b></u><b><u>Considerations</u></b></div><div>You
wrote specifically with concerns about your student's ability to "reproduce and recognize
pitch height." In neuroscience, this faculty has been broken up into
two sub-faculties—assessing height generally, and assessing
membership in a pitch class or scale degree. The former, in the neuroscience literature, is called <i>height</i>, the latter <i>chroma</i>. E.g., C4 and C5 differ in height but not in chroma. <br><br></div><div>Assessment of pitch height has been found to be a product of activity in a region just <i>posterior</i> to primary auditory cortex (on both sides of the brain), called the <i>planum polare</i> (PP). Assessment of pitch chroma has been found to be a product of activity in a region just <i>anterior</i> to primary auditory cortex, called the <i>planum temporale</i> (PT). <br></div><div><br>My
guess is that pitch chroma identification is the issue your student is
having the most trouble with, and thus that there might be an issue
either with the functioning of the PT or with getting information <i>to</i>
the PT. I also would not at all be surprised if the right-side PT were
more important for this task than the left-side PT, and this could
explain why your student's left-ear deafness might be an issue. <i>But</i>... I don't see any evidence for the right-side PT being more integral to this task than the left-side PT. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/100/17/10038.short" target="_blank">Warren et al. (2003)</a>
were the first (to my knowledge) to dissociate the functioning of PT
and PP, and to attribute chroma identification to PP. In their paper, I
don't see a significantly stronger involvement of the right PT than the left PT (but I
may be missing something). You might consider sending them a note and
seeing what they have to say about this. I also looked for more recent
evidence about PP and pitch chroma but didn't turn up much (at least
nothing that challenges the original theory or says anything new about
lateralization). Here's <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098378/" target="_blank">a more up-to-date review</a>
of the the literature on the neurology of pitch perception generally,
however, and these authors do indicate that many aspects of pitch
perception are straightforwardly lateralized to the right hemisphere
predominantly. I think a close read of that article could turn up some new leads.<br><br></div><div>Here's my summary.<br><br></div><div>1)
I would say the neurology of the situation is relevant. I think it's
great that your student showed you that study (please send it to me by
the way!), and I also think any problem solving you continue to do can
be usefully informed by understanding the neuroscience underlying pitch
perception, chroma identification, and the connections between auditory
cortex and the ears. As I said, I'm not an MD, but I'm more than happy
to keep exchanging thoughts and be available for idea-bouncing-off. <br><br></div><div>2) I think a neurological and/or
otolaryngological assessment would be a good investment in the student's
musical future, given that it might help diagnose the problem better,
and thus help you guide her education better.<br><br></div><div>3)
Brian Wilson was deaf in one ear—his right—and seems to have had no
problem understanding speech. Reciprocally, I would be somewhat surprised
if deafness in the left ear <i>necessarily</i> meant difficulty resolving and
reproducing pitch. But it is clear that the right brain has some
privileged involvement in music cognition, and the right brain gets its
input predominantly (but not exclusively) from the left ear. All of this just means that a medical exam would be worthwhile. If you get one, let me know, and I'll try to help sort out further issues.<br></div><div><br></div><div>I hope this helps!<br><br>David <br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 2:34 PM, Amy Bauer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:abauer@uci.edu" target="_blank">abauer@uci.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
Dear colleagues,<br>
<br>
We have a very hard-working, gifted young pianist who cannot pass
her aural skills sequence. She has bronchial pulmonary dispasia
(which affects her ability to sight-sing). But her primary issue is
almost total deafness in her left ear. She struggled for a long
while to understand why she had absolutely no problems with speech
or understanding speech, but had difficulty reproducing and
recognizing pitch height. According to a recent research paper she
shared with me, we use our left ears almost exclusively for that
purpose, while using the right ear to decipher speech and
syntactical relationships.<br>
<br>
Has anyone dealt with a similar situation, or has anyone dealt with
a situation where a student simply could not complete their aural
skills requirement for medical reasons?<br>
<br>
Thank you very much for any replies.<br>
<div>-- <br><p style="font-size:smaller">Amy Bauer<br>
Associate Professor of Music Theory<br>
3043 Contemporary Arts Center<br>
Claire Trevor School of the Arts<br>
University of California, Irvine<br>
Irvine, CA 92697-2775</p><div> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="font-size:smaller">Tel: <a href="tel:949-824-6615" value="+19498246615" target="_blank">949-824-6615</a><br>
Fax: <a href="tel:949-824-4914" value="+19498244914" target="_blank">949-824-4914</a><br>
e-mail: <a href="mailto:abauer@uci.ed" target="_blank">abauer@uci.ed</a><br>
<a href="http://music.arts.uci.edu/content/amy-bauer" target="_blank">Department
website</a><br>
<a href="http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409400417" target="_blank">Ligeti's
Laments: Nostalgia, Exoticism and the Absolute</a></p>
</div>
</div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><b style="color:rgb(102,0,0)">David Bashwiner</b><br>Assistant Professor of Music Theory<br>University of New Mexico<br><font size="1">Center for the Arts, Rm 2103</font><div><font size="1">MSC04 2570</font><div><div><font size="1">1 University of New Mexico</font></div><div><font size="1">Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001<br><a href="tel:%28505%29%20277-4449" value="+15052774449" target="_blank">(505) 277-4449</a></font><br></div></div></div>
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