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Principled Explanations in Comparative Biomusicology – Toward a Comparative Cognitive Biology of the Human Capacities for Music and Language

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Principled Explanations in Comparative Biomusicology – Toward a Comparative Cognitive Biology of the Human Capacities for Music and Language Principled Explanations in Comparative Biomusicology – Toward a Comparative Cognitive Biology of the Human Capacities for Music and Language Inaugural dissertation to complete the doctorate from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Cologne in the subject Musicology presented by Rie Asano born on May 19th, 1986 in Tokyo, Japan Cologne, Germany, April 10th, 2019 Primary supervisor Prof. Dr. Uwe Seifert Secondary supervisor Prof. Dr. Cedric Boeckx Tertiary supervisor PD Dr. Doris Mücke Table of contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... i Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1 In search of a comparative biological approach to cognitive systems ................... 2 2 “Syntax” or “structure building” for comparative language-music research? ....... 4 3 Goals and structure of the thesis ............................................................................ 5 PART I: Principled explanations in comparative biomusicology .................................. 8 4 The research program and its framework .............................................................. 9 4.1 Comparative approaches .............................................................................. 10 4.2 Biological frameworks ................................................................................. 10 4.3 Levels of analysis in cognitive science ........................................................ 11 4.4 A unified framework .................................................................................... 12 5 Methodological problems and first approaches ................................................... 16 5.1 Problem of contrastive comparison ............................................................. 16 5.1.1 The comparative approach to language and music .................................. 16 5.1.2 The comparative cognition approach ....................................................... 19 5.2 The problem of explanatory gaps ................................................................ 21 5.2.1 Going beyond the competence-performance dichotomy ......................... 21 5.2.2 Approaching the mind/brain interface problems ..................................... 25 6 Principled explanations as research strategies ..................................................... 30 PART II: Top-down perspectives to syntax and its neurocognitive mechanisms ........ 35 7 On comparing language and music ...................................................................... 37 7.1 Syntax in the broad sense ............................................................................. 37 7.2 Computational level: Recursion and hierarchical structure building ........... 39 7.3 Algorithmic level: Parsing models............................................................... 41 7.4 Implementational level: Fronto-temporal networks..................................... 44 8 Generative approaches to language and music .................................................... 46 8.1 Formal language theory and the Minimalist Program in generative linguistics ...................................................................................................................... 46 8.2 Generative theories in musicology............................................................... 50 8.2.1 Generative Theory of Tonal Music .......................................................... 50 8.2.2 Generative Syntax of Tonal Harmony ..................................................... 53 9 Generative neurolinguistics and generative neuromusicology ............................ 56 9.1 Angela Friederici’s cortical circuit model of language ................................ 56 9.1.1 Methodological paradigms....................................................................... 56 9.1.2 Time course and functional neuroanatomy .............................................. 63 9.1.3 Syntactic processing within the temporo-frontal networks ..................... 67 9.2 Cortical circuit model of tonal-harmonic syntax in music........................... 69 9.2.1 Stefan Koelsch’ neurocognitive model of music perception ................... 69 9.2.2 Neural correlates of tonal-harmonic syntactic processing: An ALE meta- analysis ..................................................................................................... 75 9.3 Hierarchical processing as shared aspects of linguistic and musical syntax ... ...................................................................................................................... 82 10 Perspectives from neurocognitive psycholinguistics and psychomusicology ..... 85 10.1 The Shared Syntactic Integration Resource Hypothesis and working memory ...................................................................................................................... 85 10.2 Cognitive control approach .......................................................................... 88 10.3 Executive function as shared aspects of linguistic and musical syntax ....... 90 11 Shared mechanisms for syntax in language and music ........................................ 91 Part III Rhythmic syntax: An integrative approach ..................................................... 95 12 Computational-representational theory of rhythmic syntax ................................ 97 12.1 Components of rhythmic syntax .................................................................. 97 12.2 Structural analysis of African drum ensemble music ................................ 102 12.3 Computational principles of rhythmic syntax ............................................ 114 13 Rhythmic syntactic processing and its neural implementation .......................... 118 13.1 Processing structural relationships in musical rhythm............................... 118 13.2 Processing structural ambiguity ................................................................. 122 13.3 Processing affect encoded by rhythmic syntax .......................................... 127 13.4 Neural correlates of rhythmic syntactic processing: An ALE meta-analysis ... .................................................................................................................... 128 14 Neurocognitive mechanisms of rhythmic syntactic processing ......................... 137 14.1 The basal ganglia (BG) and the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical (CBGT) circuits ......................................................................................... 137 14.2 Cognitive and neural processes implemented in the CBGT circuits ......... 142 14.3 The CBGT circuits for rhythmic syntactic processing .............................. 144 15 On the relationship between syntax in language and rhythmic syntax .............. 146 15.1 Identifying the missing link from theoretical and empirical perspectives . 146 15.2 The CBGT circuits for syntactic processing in language .......................... 149 15.3 Shared neurocognitive mechanisms implemented by the CBGT circuits........ .................................................................................................................... 152 PART IV Conclusions and future directions .............................................................. 156 16 Main results of the current thesis ....................................................................... 157 16.1 Comparative biomusicology as a comparative biological information processing framework ................................................................................ 157 16.2 Computational problem of musical syntax: Mapping between hierarchical structure and temporal sequence to link sound and affect ......................... 158 16.3 Neurocognitive mechanisms of music syntactic processing revealed by investigating tonal encoding of pitch and beat-based encoding of rhythm ..... .................................................................................................................... 160 16.4 Neurocognitive mechanisms for language and music syntactic processing: Going beyond the shared/distinct dichotomy ............................................ 162 16.5 Answers to further relevant questions........................................................ 165 16.5.1 Did the thesis solve the problem of explanatory gaps? ........................ 165 16.5.2 How does the elementary parts list of the current thesis look like in the end? ...................................................................................................... 166 17 Open questions and future directions ................................................................. 168 17.1 How valid is it to assess syntax apart from ‘semantics’?........................... 168 17.2 What might be constituents for a between-species comparative approach to language and music? .................................................................................. 173 17.3 How does a possible way toward computational neurocognitive modeling in comparative biomusicology research look like? ........................................ 178 18 Call for comparative cognitive biology ............................................................. 180 References .................................................................................................................. 182 List of abbreviations .................................................................................................
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