Understanding the relationship between music and language has implications
for people with language disorders, such as aphasia. The Shared Syntactic
Integration Resource Hypothesis (SSIRH; Patel, 2003) proposes that
syntactic processing of language and music draws on distinct networks for
words and chords but relies on partially shared resources for integrating
those elements into the context of a sentence or musical phrase. One
prediction of the SSIRH is that people with aphasia (PWA) with syntactic
comprehension deficits should also present with musical syntactic
processing deficits. The present study aims to determine if PWA present
with abnormal P600 event-related potential (ERP) responses to violations of
linguistic and musical syntax. A secondary aim is to determine if there is
a relationship between musical training and the brain’s response in both
domains. Neurophysiological responses to linguistic and musical syntactic
violations were investigated in seven PWA and 14 healthy controls. Both
groups presented with a significant P600 ERP response to syntactic
violations in both domains. Comparing the PWA to the healthy controls, we
found that patients presented with a reduced-amplitude P600 response to
linguistic, but not musical, violations, suggesting intact online
processing of musical syntax. Additionally, the PWA also presented with
larger frontal positivities in response to violations in both domains. For
both groups, musical training significantly positively correlated with P600
amplitude in posterior regions in response to violations in language and
music. This suggests that musical training may impact syntactic processing
of language, even after stroke.