How neural rhythm processing shapes the way we communicate

Sonja Kotz leads the Minerva research group "Neurocognition of Rhythm in Communication" at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. She presented evidence from neuroimaging on the impact of cognitive functions on bilingual processing at the AAAS symposium "Crossing Borders in Language Science: What Bilinguals Tell Us About Mind and Brain".

Rhythm, as the recurrent patterning of events in time, underlies most human behavior such as speech, music, and body movements. Sonja Kotz investigates how temporal patterns in di!erent languages influence the processing of phonological, semantic, and syntactic information. Individuals who learn a new language usually need time to develop a "feel" for its characteristics. With rapid speech it can initially even be difficult to recognize individual words. "This is because the brain has to become accustomed to new speech rhythms," explains Sonja Kotz.

Our brain is very good at recognizing patterns in the environment and uses them to create general predictions about the near future.

"We assume there is a neural network permanently engaged in evaluating information about duration, rhythm, tempo and stress of syllables in order to recognize temporal regularities in the stream of speech", says Kotz. During language acquisition, this network could store fundamental regularities of speech in the brain so that later, language processing is more efficient.

Rhythm processing predominantly occurs in brain areas in and just belowthe cerebral cortex but also in motor areas and evolutionarily older areas like the cerebellum and basal ganglia.

"This points to an early stage of development," says Kotz. "The evolution of language would not have been possible without the development of brain areas which have the ability to structure events temporally." To meet the high communicative demands of homo sapiens, the motor system in and below the cerebral cortex might have become increasingly sensitive to rhythmic input.

Source:
Sonja A. Kotz, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

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Voice Movement Therapy (VMT)

Voice Movement Therapy arrives in South Africa

What is Voice Movement Therapy (VMT)?

The human voice reflects both physical and psychic states and has the ability to convey both cognitive meaning and affective expression simultaneously. It is our primary mode of communication for both ideas and feelings and can move us with words and beyond words. It is the only instrument wherein player and played upon are contained within the same organic form and therefore can achieve its fullest expression when firmly grounded in the body. It has two main channels of communication: the words we say - the symbols we use to convey our cognitive message, and the way we say them - the tones and qualities of voice which express the affective or feeling message underlying what we speak or sing.

The development of language, both in terms of the evolution of the human species and in the progression of individuals from infancy to adulthood, originated in vocal gestures without words and then became joined to acoustic and written symbols. This has often led to a de-emphasis on the emotions behind the words, an essential ingredient which we seek to recapture through the act, and art, of song, and speech which is congruent with feelings. To do this to the fullest extent possible, VMT practitioners believe it is necessary to re-embody the voice, not just from the diaphragm up but through a holistic engagement of body, mind and soul. The more we can connect our vocal output to our physical selves - the more flexible, durable, versatile and responsive we can make it to life as we experience it - the more we can ground ourselves in the reality of our whole being. Working with a particular set of vocal components, breathing and massage techniques, images, ideas, and the sounds and characters that emerge when engaging with one’s own story through the embodied voice, we seek to bring that voice into the world.

This work is currently being applied and expanded by registered members of the International Association for Voice Movement Therapy (IAVMT)

info@iavmt.org or www.iavmt.org