Processing Syntactic Relations in Language and Music: An Event-Related Potential Study

Abstract

In order to test the language-speci city of a known neural correlate of syntactic processing [the P600 event-related brain potential (ERP) component], this study directly compared ERPs elicited by syntactic incongruities in language and music. Using principles of phrase structure for language and principles of harmony and key-relatedness for music, sequences were constructed in which an element was either congruous, moderately incongruous, or highly incongruous with the preceding structural context. A within-subjects design using 15 musically educated adults revealed that linguistic and musical structural incongruities elicited positivities that were statistically indistinguishable in a speci ed latency range. In contrast, a music-speci c ERP component was observed that showed antero-temporal right-hemisphere lateralization. The results argue against the language-speci city of the P600 and suggest that language and music can be studied in parallel to address questions of neural speci city in cognitive processing.

Electric brain responses to inappropriate harmonies during listening to expressive music

“…The shift of one semi-tone upwards corresponds to a harmonic distance of 5 fifths (in the sense of the circle of fifths, for explanations see, e.g., Patel et al, 1998). This harmonic distance equals the most distant chords in the study from Patel et al (1998), and the Neapolitan chords of the studies from Koelsch et al (2000bKoelsch et al ( , 2001aKoelsch et al ( ,b, 2002 and Maess et al (2001), enabling a comparison of results between those and the present study.…”

“…This harmonic distance equals the most distant chords in the study from Patel et al (1998), and the Neapolitan chords of the studies from Koelsch et al (2000bKoelsch et al ( , 2001aKoelsch et al ( ,b, 2002 and Maess et al (2001), enabling a comparison of results between those and the present study.…”

“…Numerous studies investigated this field with linguistic stimuli, and recently, this field was considerably expanded by the investigation of music processing. Studies with electroencephalography (EEG) revealed that harmonically inappropriate chords presented within a sequence of chords elicit brain responses with a latency of around 180-400 ms that are maximal over the right hemisphere (Patel et al, 1998;Koelsch et al, 2000bKoelsch et al, , 2001aKoelsch et al, ,b, 2002.…”

“…In the study from Patel et al (1998), musicians were presented with chord sequences that were written in a popular style, sequences varying in their length from 7 to 12 chords (duration was on average 6 s). Harmonically inappropriate chords elicited a right anterior-temporal negativity (RATN), which was observed only over the right hemisphere, had a latency of around 350 ms, and did not show to be sensitive to the degree of violation.…”

“…In contrast to 'real music', however, the stimuli presented in the studies from Patel et al (1998), Koelsch et al (2000bKoelsch et al ( , 2001aKoelsch et al ( ,b, 2002, and Maess et al (2001) were played by a computer with no dynamics and agogics, i.e. with no variations in tempo or loudness.…”