Neural correlates of the processing of musical syntax-like structures have been investigated via expectancy violation due to musically unrelated (i.e., unexpected) events in musical contexts. Previous studies reported the implication of inferior frontal cortex in musical structure processing. However - due to the strong musical manipulations - activations might be explained by sensory deviance detection or repetition priming. Our present study investigated neural correlates of musical structure processing with subtle musical violations in a musical priming paradigm. Instrumental and sung sequences ended on related and less-related musical targets. The material controlled sensory priming components, and differences in target processing required listeners' knowledge on musical structures. Participants were scanned with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while performing speeded phoneme and timbre identification judgments on the targets. Behavioral results acquired in the scanner replicated the facilitation effect of related over less-related targets. The blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal linked to target processing revealed activation of right inferior frontal areas (i.e., inferior frontal gyrus, frontal operculum, anterior insula) that was stronger for less-related than for related targets, and this was independent of the material carrying the musical structures. This outcome points to the implication of inferior frontal cortex in the processing of syntactic relations also for musical material and to its role in the processing and integration of sequential information over time. In addition to inferior frontal activation, increased activation was observed in orbital gyrus, temporal areas (anterior superior temporal gyrus, posterior superior temporal gyrus and sulcus, posterior middle temporal gyrus) and supramarginal gyrus

Musical priming research has reported that sensory consonance/dissonance judgements for a target chord were faster when targets were musically related to a musical prime context. The present study extended this context effect to a timbre discrimination task. This new task allowed us to investigate whether musical priming results from congruency effects similar to those reported in other domains. Targets were played with two musical timbres and were either strongly related (i.e., tonic chord) or less related (i.e., subdominant chord) to the prime context. In three experiments, timbre discrimination judgements were always faster for related targets than for less-related targets. This finding establishes that musical relatedness influences the processing of timbres and suggests that this priming effect does not derive from response biases due to congruency effects. Using a timbre discrimination task in musical priming studies offers other methodological advantages and controls, which are discussed in the final section.For language, objects, and music, it has been established that a prime context influences the processing of a target event. For language, the processing of a target word is facilitated when it is preceded by a semantically related prime word in comparison to an unrelated one (e.g., Meyer & Schvaneveldt, 1971).

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The findings extend the previously observed beneficial short-term effects of regular musical primes in the laboratory to long-term training effects. Results suggest that the musical primes improved the processing of the syntactic training material, thus enhancing the training effects on grammatical processing as well as phonological processing and sequencing of speech signals. The findings can be interpreted within the dynamic attending theory (postulating the modulation of attention over time) and associated oscillatory brain activity. Furthermore, the findings encourage the use of rhythmic structures (even in non-verbal materials) in language training programs and outline perspectives for rehabilitation.

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Highlights 1) Regular rhythmic stimulation benefits subsequent speech processing = 69 2) The P600 response to grammatical errors was enhanced after regular rhythms = 77 3) This benefit was observed in both dyslexic adults and matched controls = 73 4) It persisted despite dyslexics' temporal processing deficit and delayed P600 = 79 5) Findings encourage the use of rhythmic stimulation in rehabilitation and training = 84

The present study investigates the effect of a change in instrumentation on the recognition of musical excerpts in Western contemporary and tonal music. The critical finding was a strong effect of timbre on the recognition of musical material that is modulated by both the extent of musical expertise and the musical style. Changing the instrumentation of musical excerpts from a piece by Reynolds considerably hampers recognition among musicians (Expts. 1 and 2), but not among nonmusicians, whose recognition was poor regardless of instrumentation. Both musicians and nonmusicians were affected by instrumentation change in excerpts from a symphonic poem by Liszt (Expt. 3). This finding suggests that timbre may contribute, along with pitch and rhythm, to the identity of musical materials. The difference found between musicians and nonmusicians with the Reynolds piece may be parsimoniously explained by the fact that the musicians were considerably more familiar with contemporary music than were the nonmusicians.

The psychological relevance of large-scale musical structures has been a matter of debate in the music community. This issue was investigated with a method that allows assessing listeners' detection of musical incoherencies in normal and scrambled versions of popular and contemporary music pieces. Musical excerpts were segmented into 28 or 29 chunks. In the scrambled version, the temporal order of these chunks was altered with the constraint that the transitions between two chunks never created local acoustical and musical disruptions. Participants were required (1) to detect on-line incoherent linking of chunks, (2) to rate aesthetic quality of pieces, and (3) to evaluate their overall coherence. The findings indicate a moderate sensitivity to large-scale musical structures for popular and contemporary music in both musically trained and untrained listeners. These data are discussed in light of current models of music cognition.