Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we compared the processing of sinusoidal tones in the auditory cortex of 12 non-musicians, 12 professional musicians and 13 amateur musicians. We found neurophysiological and anatomical differences between groups. In professional musicians as compared to non-musicians, the activity evoked in primary auditory cortex 19-30 ms after stimulus onset was 102% larger, and the gray matter volume of the anteromedial portion of Heschl's gyrus was 130% larger. Both quantities were highly correlated with musical aptitude, as measured by psychometric evaluation. These results indicate that both the morphology and neurophysiology of Heschl's gyrus have an essential impact on musical aptitude.

The relative pitch of harmonic complex sounds, such as instrumental sounds, may be perceived by decoding either the fundamental pitch (f0) or the spectral pitch (fSP) of the stimuli. We classified a large cohort of 420 subjects including symphony orchestra musicians to be either f0 or fSP listeners, depending on the dominant perceptual mode. In a subgroup of 87 subjects, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and magnetoencephalography studies demonstrated a strong neural basis for both types of pitch perception irrespective of musical aptitude. Compared with f0 listeners, fSP listeners possessed a pronounced rightward, rather than leftward, asymmetry of gray matter volume and P50m activity within the pitch-sensitive lateral Heschl's gyrus. Our data link relative hemispheric lateralization with perceptual stimulus properties, whereas the absolute size of the Heschl's gyrus depends on musical aptitude.

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has measured muon pairs with unprecedented precision in 158 A GeV In-In collisions. A strong excess of pairs above the known sources is observed in the whole mass region 0.2 < M < 2.6 GeV. The mass spectrum for M < 1 GeV is consistent with a dominant contribution from π + π − → ρ → μ + μ − annihilation. The associated ρ spectral function shows a strong broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. For M > 1 GeV, the excess is found to be prompt, not due to enhanced charm production, with pronounced differences to Drell-Yan pairs. The slope parameter T eff associated with the transverse momentum spectra rises with mass up to the ρ, followed by a sudden decline above. The rise for M < 1 GeV is consistent with radial flow of a hadronic emission source. The seeming absence of significant flow for M > 1 GeV and its relation to parton-hadron duality is discussed in detail, suggesting a dominantly partonic emission source in this region. A comparison of the data to the present status of theoretical modeling is also contained. The accumulated empirical evidence, including also a Plancklike shape of the mass spectra at low p T and the lack of a e-mail: sanja.damjanovic@cern.ch polarization, is consistent with a global interpretation of the excess dimuons as thermal radiation. We conclude with first results on ω in-medium effects.PACS 25.75.-q · 12.38.Mh · 13.85.Qk

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