Early neural responses underlie advantages for consonance over dissonance

Abstract

Consonant musical intervals tend to be more readily processed than dissonant intervals. In the present study, we explore the neural basis for this difference by registering how the brain responds after changes in consonance and dissonance, and how formal musical training modulates these responses. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were registered while participants were presented with sequences of consonant intervals interrupted by a dissonant interval, or sequences of dissonant intervals interrupted by a consonant interval. Participants were musicians and non-musicians. Our results show that brain responses triggered by changes in a consonant context differ from those triggered in a dissonant context. Changes in a sequence of consonant intervals are rapidly processed independently of musical expertise, as revealed by a change-related mismatch negativity (MMN, a component of the ERPs triggered by an odd stimulus in a sequence of stimuli) elicited in both musicians and non-musicians. In contrast, changes in a sequence of dissonant intervals elicited a late MMN only in participants with prolonged musical training. These different neural responses might form the basis for the processing advantages observed for consonance over dissonance and provide information about how formal musical training modulates them.

Musical Expertise Facilitates Dissonance Detection On Behavioral, Not On Early Sensory Level

“…In line with our results, Crespo-Bojorque et al (2018) found no differences between expert and non-expert listeners in typical Western music context. Nevertheless, they did find modulating effects of musical expertise in a less conventional context; that is, infrequent consonant intervals within standard dissonant intervals.…”

“…Musicians typically outperform their nonmusician peers in behavioral sound change detection (Kung et al, 2014;Sares et al, 2018;Tervaniemi, Just, Koelsch, Widmann, & Schröger, 2005;Virtala et al, 2014). Moreover, several electrophysiological studies have reported enhanced auditory discrimination skills in musicians (Brattico et al, 2009;Kung et al, 2014;Pantev et al, 1998;Vuust et al, 2005), while others have reported MMN responses for musically relevant stimulus change occurring only in musicians (Crespo-Bojorque et al, 2018;Virtala et al, 2014;see Putkinen & Tervaniemi, 2018) or even in musicians representing specific genre (Tervaniemi, Rytkönen, Schröger, Ilmoniemi, & Näätänen, 2001). Virtala and colleagues (2014) found that only musicians showed an MMN response to minor and inverted major chords in the context of major chords, while the study by Tervaniemi et al (2001) suggested that only the musicians with long-term experience in playing from memory showed MMN responses to deviating melodic contours, as opposed to nonmusicians, and musicians relying on the musical score while performing.…”

“…Particularly, the MMN response (or its magnetic counterpart MMNm) has been detected for discriminating consonant from dissonant intervals (Crespo-Bojorque, Monte-Ordoño, & Toro, 2018; Itoh, Suwazono, & Nakada, 2010) and chords (Brattico et al, 2009;Virtala et al, 2011). Although some of these studies have compared the ERPs between musicians and nonmusicians (Brattico et al, 2009;Crespo-Bojorque et al, 2018;Itoh et al, 2010), detection of the degree of dissonance in a chord setting has not been investigated. Moreover, in all studies of consonance/dissonance to date, tonality and consonance/dissonance have been confounded since the chords were formed from traditional Western major/minor modes, and not from more consonant intervals, such as fourths and fifths.…”

“…Consonant vs. dissonant chords and intervals are detected by both musicians and nonmusicians, although musicianship seems to enhance this discrimination both behaviorally (Arthurs et al, 2018;Kung et al, 2014) and neurally (Brattico et al, 2009;Crespo-Bojorque et al, 2018;Kung et al, 2014). Recently, Arthurs et al (2018) showed that when listening to twelve different chord types, listeners' subjective ratings of consonance was associated with their level of experience in Western tonal music.…”

“…Previous studies have investigated the detection of dissonance vs. consonance with intervals (e.g., Arthurs et al, 2018;Crespo-Bojorque et al, 2018;Itoh et al, 2010;Kung et al, 2014) or with chords within a major/minor context (e.g., Brattico et al, 2009;Virtala et al, 2011). Furthermore, several ERP studies have deployed consonant and dissonant intervals and chords in a dichotomic way, not considering this musical feature as a continuum from very dissonant to highly consonant sound combinations (e.g., Brattico et al, 2009;Kung et al, 2014;Virtala et al, 2011).…”