Effects of musical training on the early auditory cortical representation of pitch transitions as indexed by change‐N1

Abstract

The effects of musical training on the early auditory cortical response to pitch transitions in music were investigated by use of the change-N1 component of auditory event-related potentials. Musicians and non-musicians were presented with music stimuli comprising a melody and a harmony under various listening conditions. First, when the subjects played a video game and were instructed to ignore the auditory stimuli, the onset of stimuli elicited a typical, fronto-central onset-N1, whereas melodic and harmonic pitch transitions within the stimuli elicited so-called change-N1s that were more posterior in scalp distribution. The pitch transition change-N1s, but not onset-N1, were enhanced in musicians. Second, when the listeners attended to the same stimuli as above to detect infrequently occurring target stimuli, the change-N1 elicited by pitch changes (in non-target stimuli) was augmented, in non-musicians only when the target was easily detectable, and in both musicians and non-musicians when it was difficult to detect. Thus, the early, obligatory cortical response to pitch transitions during passive listening was chronically enhanced by training in musicians, and, reflecting this training-induced enhancement, the task-related modulation of this response was also different between musicians and non-musicians. These results are the first to demonstrate the long-term effects of training, short-term effects of task and the effects of their interaction on the early (~100-ms) cortical processing of pitch transitions in music. The scalp distributions of these enhancement effects were generally right dominant at temporal electrode sites, suggesting contributions from the radially oriented subcomponent of change-N1, namely, the Tb (N1c) wave of the T-complex.

Cortical pitch response components index stimulus onset/offset and dynamic features of pitch contours

“…For example, in response to pure tones, musicians exhibit larger amplitudes of the early cortical components (N19m–P30m) within the right primary auditory cortex of trained musicians only; non-musicians show no hemispheric asymmetry (Schneider et al, 2002). In response to musical stimuli, a right temporal advantage is seen in the cortical N1 component related to pitch transition (change-N1, ~100 ms latency) in trained musicians (Itoh, Okumiya-Kanke, Nakayama, Kwee, & Nakada, 2012). But no hemispheric asymmetry is observed for the onset component.…”

An introduction to the measurement of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs)

“…From the research mentioned in the description of some common ERP components (Sect. 1.3), we have seen that sounds ranging from simple sounds, like clicks or tone bursts (e.g., [49,50]), to complex sounds such as music (e.g., [51,52]) or speech (e.g., [53]) can be employed. Sound stimuli can also be presented in multimodal research, with stimuli of other sensory modalities (e.g., [54]).…”

“…Given that basic participant factors (gender, age, handedness) and differences in possible task-related factors (e.g., musical training [51,52]) can cause individual differences in the EEG waveform, it is highly recommendable to systematically record participant information. Furthermore, it is necessary to match participants for such factors when ERP responses to different tasks or stimuli are measured over different groups.…”

Pitch-induced responses in the right auditory cortex correlate with musical ability in normal listeners

“…In some disagreement with this, recent EEG data showed increased N100 responses related to pitch transitions in musicians as compared with nonmusicians [8]. We speculate that, besides methodological differences between fMRI and electrophysiological data, differences in the experimental design may also account for this discrepancy.…”

“…Structural analyses showed significant local increments of grey matter volume and cortical thickness as well as changes in white matter fibre tract organization, both in the auditory cortex and in other nonauditory brain regions [2][3][4]. In addition to such anatomical differences, professional musicians show differences in auditory-evoked responses to sound at various stages of the auditory pathway, ranging from the brainstem to the secondary auditory cortex [5][6][7][8][9][10]. A question that has, however, only rarely been addressed is the relationship between individual musical abilities and neural processing in normal listeners.…”