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| Research article summary (published 30 Mar 2002): |
Automatic and controlled processing of melodic contour and interval information measured by electrical brain activity.
Full Abstract
Most work on how pitch is encoded in the auditory cortex has focused on tonotopic (absolute) pitch maps. However, melodic information is thought to be encoded in the brain in two different "relative pitch" forms, a domain-general contour code (up/down pattern of pitch changes) and a music-specific interval code (exact pitch distances between notes). Event-related potentials were analyzed in nonmusicians from both passive and active oddball tasks where either the contour or the interval of melody-final notes was occasionally altered. The occasional deviant notes generated a right frontal positivity peaking around 350 msec and a central parietal P3b peaking around 580 msec that were present only when participants focused their attention on the auditory stimuli. Both types of melodic information were encoded automatically in the absence of absolute pitch cues, as indexed by a mismatch negativity wave recorded during the passive conditions. The results indicate that even in the absence of musical training, the brain is set up to automatically encode music-specific melodic information, even when absolute pitch information is not available.
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Author information
Author/s: Trainor, Laurel J (LJ); McDonald, Kelly L (KL); Alain, Claude (C);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1. ljt@mcmaster.ca
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Journal of cognitive neuroscience (J Cogn Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Apr; vol 14 (issue 3) : pp 430-42
Dates: Created 2002/04/23; Completed 2002/05/22; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 11970802, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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