Language-dependent changes in pitch-relevant neural activity in the auditory cortex reflect differential weighting of temporal attributes of pitch contours

There remains a gap in our knowledge base about neural representation of pitch attributes that occur between onset and offset of dynamic, curvilinear pitch contours. The aim is to evaluate how language experience shapes processing of pitch contours as reflected in the amplitude of cortical pitch-specific response components. Responses were elicited from three nonspeech, bidirectional (falling-rising) pitch contours representative of Mandarin Tone 2 varying in location of the turning point with fixed onset and offset. At the frontocentral Fz electrode site, Na–Pb and Pb–Nb amplitude of the Chinese group was larger than the English group for pitch contours exhibiting later location of the turning point relative to the one with the earliest location. Chinese listeners’ amplitude was also greater than that of English in response to those same pitch contours with later turning points. At lateral temporal sites (T7/T8), Na–Pb amplitude was larger in Chinese listeners relative to English over the right temporal site. In addition, Pb–Nb amplitude of the Chinese group showed a rightward asymmetry. The pitch contour with its turning point located about halfway of total duration evoked a rightward asymmetry regardless of group. These findings suggest that neural mechanisms processing pitch in the right auditory cortex reflect experience-dependent modulation of sensitivity to weighted integration of changes in acceleration rates of rising and falling sections and the location of the turning point

Functional organization for musical consonance and tonal pitch hierarchy in human auditory cortex

Pitch relationships in music are characterized by their degree of consonance, a hierarchical perceptual quality that distinguishes how pleasant musical chords/intervals sound to the ear. The origins of consonance have been debated since the ancient Greeks. To elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these musical fundamentals, we recorded neuroelectric brain activity while participants listened passively to various chromatic musical intervals (simultaneously sounding pitches) varying in their perceptual pleasantness (i.e., consonance/dissonance). Dichotic presentation eliminated acoustic and peripheral contributions that often confound explanations of consonance. We found that neural representations for pitch in early human auditory cortex code perceptual features of musical consonance and follow a hierarchical organization according to music-theoretic principles. These neural correlates emerge pre-attentively within ~ 150. ms after the onset of pitch, are segregated topographically in superior temporal gyrus with a rightward hemispheric bias, and closely mirror listeners\u27 behavioral valence preferences for the chromatic tone combinations inherent to music. A perceptual-based organization implies that parallel to the phonetic code for speech, elements of music are mapped within early cerebral structures according to higher-order, perceptual principles and the rules of Western harmony rather than simple acoustic attributes. © 2014 Elsevier Inc

Defining Consonance and Dissonance in Metal Music

The theoretical phenomena ‘consonance and dissonance’ underscore the ex-pression of many musical disciplines and appear in literature dating back to the ancient world. Consonance is a state of rest, or normalcy, usually instantiated by the starting note of a composition, whereas dissonance afflicts tension against this consonance. Ordinarily, dissonance still bears a strong harmonic relation to the prevailing consonance. Whilst a vast body of literature has been dedicated to this concept, its embodiment in metal music has scarcely been studied despite the traits of this genre depending greatly on the existence of consonance and dissonance. This thesis overviews consonance and dissonance in metal music, and in particular, metal music’s unusual approach in that its dissonances can not only lack harmonicity but supersede consonance as a state of normalcy. The lack of a comprehensive text on metal music consonance and dissonance is not only a deficit for music theory literature, but also metal, music psychology, and global music literature. In analysing metal music’s approach to consonance and dissonance, this thesis confirms the literature’s notion that consonance and dis-sonance parameters evolve over time. Furthermore, studying consonance and dissonance in the case of one music genre is highly revealing about how fans derive pleasure and meaningfulness from the music. This is not only relevant to the psychological implications of metal, but to music literature more generally in that scrutiny against theoretical concepts must be maintained if they are to retain relevance to ever-innovating and ever-more creative musical practices. Detailed analysis of music and listener-perceptions thereof offer important insights into what turn out to be subversive interpretations of consonance and dissonance; although a natural basis for the phenomena is established, their realisation as tension/resolution is shown to be an individual’s experience. Most likely, however, an individual’s definition of consonance and dissonance is enforced by a culture of music. It is shown that metal music favours dissonance highly due to its congruence with aesthetics which transcend the genre; along with analysing music, this thesis observes the overall transgressive, horror-like traits of metal music. Such aesthetics are found to be appealing as they facilitate the exploration and catharsis of negative emotions and ideas in safety, both individually and communally

Experience-dependent plasticity in the auditory domain: effects of expertise and training on functional brain organization

The present dissertation aims at systematically investigating manifestations of experience-dependent plasticity in the auditory domain, resulting from intensive musical training, utilizing analytical tools from network neuroscience. The dissertation is based on data acquired in the course of a longitudinal study investigating structural and functional changes in the auditory domain due to music training. A group of aspiring professional musicians, attending preparatory courses for entrance exams at universities of arts, and a group of amateur musicians, actively practicing in their everyday life, completed up to 5 behavioral and neuroimaging assessments in the course of one year. The dissertation consists of three studies addressing cross-sectional and longitudinal aspects of functional plastic differences and changes, respectively, ranging from a specific auditory process over unconstrained music listening to longitudinal changes in functional organization

Modelling human choices: MADeM and decision‑making

Research supported by FAPESP 2015/50122-0 and DFG-GRTK 1740/2. RP and AR are also part of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics FAPESP grant (2013/07699-0). RP is supported by a FAPESP scholarship (2013/25667-8). ACR is partially supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

The Human Faculty for Music: What's special about it?

Abstract (short version) This thesis presents a model of a narrow faculty for music - qualities that are at once universally present and operational in music across cultures whilst also being specific to our species and to the domain of music. The comparative approach taken focuses on core psychological and physiological capabilities that root and enable appropriate engagement with music rather than on their observable physical correlates. Configurations of musical pulse; musical tone; and musical motivation are described as providing a sustained attentional structure for managing personal experience and interpersonal interaction and as offering a continually renewing phenomenological link between the immediate past, the perceptual present and future expectation. Constituent parts of the narrow faculty for music are considered most fundamentally as a potentiating, quasi-architectural framework in which our most central affective and socio-intentional drives are afforded extended time, stability, and a degree of abstraction, intensity, focus and meaning. The author contends, therefore, that music's defining characteristics, specific functionalities and/or situated efficacies are not demarcated in broadly termed “musical” qualities such as melodic contour or rhythm or in those surprisingly elusive “objective facts” of musical structure. Rather they are solely the attentional/motivational frameworks which root our faculty to make and make sense of music. Our generic capacities for culture and the manifold uses of action, gesture, and sound to express and induce emotion; to regulate affective states; to create or reflect meaning; to signify; to ritualize; coordinate; communicate; interrelate; embody; entrain; and/or intentionalize, none of these is assessed as being intrinsically unique to music performance. Music is, instead, viewed as an ordered expression of human experience, behaviour, interaction, and vitality, all shaped, shared, given significance, and/or transformed in time. The relevance of this model to topical debates on music and evolution is discussed and the author contends that the perspective offered affords significant implications for our understanding of why music is evidently and remarkably effective in certain settings and in the pursuit of certain social, individual, and therapeutic goals.Cambridge University Millennium Fun