Really? Anahad O’Connor tackles health myths.

THE FACTS

Music and language are closely related — some might even say forms of one another.

It is known, for example, that a musical background can enhance one’s ability to learn a second language. But now scientists have shown that the relationship can work in reverse.

People who speak languages that use tones to convey meaning appear to have a better ear for learning music, according to research published in the journal PLOS ONE. The findings further highlight the overlap of music and language in the brain, and they suggest that tonal languages may prime the brain for the development of musical skills.

In the study, scientists at Baycrest Health Sciences’ Rotman Research Institute recruited a group of musicians as well as two groups of non-musicians, composed of English and Cantonese speakers. Understanding Cantonese requires mastering six different tones, which can change the meanings of words.

When the scientists gave the subjects a set of complex musical and cognitive tests, like discriminating pitch and melodies, they found that the Cantonese speakers performed about as well as the musicians. Over all, they scored about 20 percent higher than the English-speaking non-musicians on the various tests.

One author of the study, Gavin M. Bidelman, an assistant professor at the University of Memphis, said the findings most likely apply to other tonal languages as well — but not all of them. Previous research has not shown much musical benefit to knowing Mandarin, for example, and that may be because the tones are more curved. In Cantonese, as with languages like Thai and Zulu, the pitches have a flat, stair-stepped pattern, which more closely resemble music.

“You can think of some tonal languages in essence as a language version of music,” he said.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Knowing a tonal language may prime the brain for musical training.