Modulation thesis: internal clock mechanisms are biologically fixed. Cultural experience affects parameters (pacemaker rate, oscillator tuning, memory precision) while leaving computational architecture intact. Statistical learning mechanisms are universal; only inputs differ.
Constitution thesis: Developmental exposure shapes the architecture of temporal processing, producing qualitatively different categorical structures that resist adult restructuring beyond what parameter adjustment predicts.
Constitution thesis: Developmental exposure shapes the architecture of temporal processing, producing qualitatively different categorical structures that resist adult restructuring beyond what parameter adjustment predicts.
The critical difference is whether modulation predicts that sufficient training produces equivalent processing regardless of developmental history. Constitution predicts some processing signatures remain culture-specific despite behavioral convergence. Constitution is supported if, after training producing equivalent behavioral performance (statistically indistinguishable accuracy and reaction times on explicit rhythm tasks), implicit measures (such as mismatch negativity amplitude/latency) show culture-specific signatures.
The mechanistic rationale for implicit/explicit dissociation is as follows: explicit behavioral performance reflects task-specific learning that can compensate for processing differences through adjustment. Implicit measures, MMN generated pre-attentively in auditory cortex, oscillatory phase-locking reflecting automatic entrainment, involve earlier processing stages less influenced to strategic control (Näätänen et al., 2007, 2546-2550). If constitution shapes these early stages, then behavioral convergence may mask persistent processing differences detectable only through implicit measures.
This proposal defends constrained constitution: cultural exposure during developmental sensitive periods shapes categorical architecture within limits set by universal computational constraints. Specifically: