THE AIM OF THIS SERIES OF experiments was to determine whether consonant and dissonant chords elicit similar or different electrophysiological effects out of a musical context and whether these effects are similar or different for musicians and nonmusicians. To this end, w e recorded t he e vent-related b rain potentials (ERPs) elicited by the different intervals of the chromatic scale that were classified into three categories: perfect consonances, imperfect consonances, and dissonances. Participants were to decide, on a six-point scale, whether the intervals evoked pleasant or unpleasant feelings. To test the hypothesis that the perception of dissonance results from the superposition of the partials of close frequencies (Helmholtz, 1877), two notes were either played together (harmonic intervals) or successively (melodic intervals). Since, in this latter case, the two notes are played at different points in time, the perception of roughness, if any, should be weaker than for harmonic intervals. In line with Helmholtz's hypothesis, results showed larger differences for harmonic than for melodic intervals, which were mainly found on the N1-P2 complex for musicians, on the N2 component for nonmusicians, and on a later negative component for both musicians and nonmusicians. However, these results also point to the influence of expertise and cultural factors, since different results were obtained when ERPs were averaged as a function of music theory and according to the participants' responses.
THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHERconceptual priming occurs between successively presented short musical pieces called Temporal Semantic Units (TSUs). Behavioral and ERP data were recorded while participants, experts and nonexperts in TSUs, were listening to pairs of TSUs and were asked to determine whether the target TSU evoked the same or a different concept than the prime TSU. Target TSUs were either congruous (i.e., they developed the same musical concept as the prime TSUs) or incongruous (i.e., they started as congruous TSUs but shifted midstream into a different concept). Results showed that, whereas P3a components were elicited in both groups by the shifting into incongruous TSUs, thereby reflecting an automatic shift of attention when the changes occurred, P3b components were elicited in experts and N400-like components were found in nonexperts. The functional significance of these results is discussed in regard of previous results with environmental sounds. TEMPORAL SEMIOTIC UNITS AS MINIMAL MEANINGFUL UNITS IN MUSIC?AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL APPROACH 1 Temporal dynamics have been described in six large families by Hautbois (2007a, 2007b): sound parameters remain constant, evolve monotonously over time, evolve exponentially, first grow and then decrease, follow a Dirac function, or have a specific form.2 These labels can be translated as: Falling, Inexorable trajectory, Contracted-Extended, Enthusiastic, Stretching, Floating, Without direction due to divergence of information, Heaviness, Braking, Obsessive, Advancing, Turning, Trying to start up, Without direction due to excess of information, Suspension-Questioning, In suspension, In waves, Stationary, and Coasting.
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