Neural correlates of timbre change in harmonic sounds.

Full Abstract

Timbre is a major structuring force in music and one of the most important and ecologically relevant features of auditory events. We used sound stimuli selected on the basis of previous psychophysiological studies to investigate the neural correlates of timbre perception. Our results indicate that both the left and right hemispheres are involved in timbre processing, challenging the conventional notion that the elementary attributes of musical perception are predominantly lateralized to the right hemisphere. Significant timbre-related brain activation was found in well-defined regions of posterior Heschl's gyrus and superior temporal sulcus, extending into the circular insular sulcus. Although the extent of activation was not significantly different between left and right hemispheres, temporal lobe activations were significantly posterior in the left, compared to the right, hemisphere, suggesting a functional asymmetry in their respective contributions to timbre processing. The implications of our findings for music processing in particular and auditory processing in general are discussed.

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Author information

Author/s: Menon, V (V); Levitin, D J (DJ); Smith, B K (BK); Lembke, A (A); Krasnow, B D (BD); Glazer, D (D); Glover, G H (GH); McAdams, S (S);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, California 94305, USA.

Grants: HD 40761 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; RR 09784 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: NeuroImage (Neuroimage), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Dec; vol 17 (issue 4) : pp 1742-54

Dates: Created 2002/12/24; Completed 2003/03/03; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12498748, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Attention - physiology
Brain Mapping
Cerebral Cortex - anatomy & histology; physiology
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Female
Fourier Analysis
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted

Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Music
Nerve Net - anatomy & histology; physiology
Pitch Discrimination - physiology
Sound Spectrography
Temporal Lobe - anatomy & histology; physiology

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