Speech and music brain centers have evolved in animals for precise assessment of environmental signs, perceiving pitch in noise.
Music Psychologists’ and Neuroscientists’ research has presumed that understanding speech requires swift evaluation (milliseconds) of muscles of lips and tongue. One study shows that the simulation of simple syllables of speech is complex – an orchestra of neural circuits.
Music would require intricate interpretation of pitch (seconds) in a much slower way. In this hypothesis, speech (swift and complex movement of lip and tongue muscles) is principally systematized in the left-brain, and music, requiring a much slower, more accurate, intricate interpretation of tones, is in the right-brain. In reality music utilizes both right and left brain, using two parallel structures.
Music Psychologists would agree that speech and music overlay in brain areas related to syntax, meaning and memory. Due to the overlap of music and language in infants, a completely different perspective has been discovered – language exists and progresses as a specific type of music.
Music is defined as a comprehensive creative ability with sound fundamentals – such as timbre, rhythm, and pitch. Individuals show language-brain development and music-brain development are parallel for many years.
In western society, people are segregated into musicians and general population, whereas in many other societies everyone performs, sings, dances, and listens. This difference has biased studies of infants in the west when comparing music and language development.
Studies should compare ordinary language with ordinary musical sound processing. Instead studies have been comparing ordinary language with prodigy or trained music. When comparing ordinary music and ordinary language, there is much more overlap in children between language and music.
No wonder why many individuals such as musicians treat their music as a form of expression of feelings, a messenger of thoughts and a form of transferring emotions, ideas and thoughts. Music – a sweet sounding language.