Sensory Consonance

Abstract

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.

Central auditory processing of noncontextual consonance in music: An evoked potential study

“…The sounds were presented binaurally at a comfortable listening level (approximately 65 dB sensation level) via insert earphones (Eartone 3A) using STIM hardware and software (NEUROSCAN). No behavioral task was given to obviate the confounding effects of cognitive processes related to the overt evaluation of consonance perception, which itself can be modified by training (Schön et al, 2005;Minati et al, 2009). …”

“…Under this view, and based on the fact that there are limited, if any, training effects on CBW (Moore, 1987;Fine and Moore, 1993;Oxenham et al, 2003), one may be inclined to expect minimal cultural/individual differences in the perception of noncontextual consonance in music. To the contrary, however, there have been historic changes in the classification of dissonant and consonant intervals in Western music (Tenney, 1988), and there is experimental evidence of experience-dependent individual differences in the perception (Guernsey, 1928;Kameoka and Kuriyagawa, 1969;Schön et al, 2005;McDermott et al, 2010) and the neural processing (Schön et al, 2005;Foss et al, 2007;Lee et al, 2009;Minati et al, 2009) of noncontextual consonance.…”

Affective Priming Effects of Musical Sounds on the Processing of Word Meaning

“…To investigate effects of musical training on semantic processing, two groups of subjects were measured: highly trained musicians and nonmusicians. There are several ERP studies reporting differences between the two groups with regard to basic perceptual processes (Wong, Skoe, Russo, Dees, & Kraus, 2007;Schön, Regnault, Ystad, & Besson, 2005;Tervaniemi, 2001) and musical expectancies in both adults (Schön, Magne, & Besson, 2004;Koelsch, Schmidt, & Kansok, 2002;Besson & Faita, 1995) as well as children ( Jentschke, Koelsch, Sallat, & Friederici, 2008;Magne, Schön, & Besson, 2006). However, because there are no previous studies investigating training effects on processing the affective expression of musical features and its influence on semantic word processing, no directed hypotheses were made regarding ERP and behavioral differences between groups.…”

On the fluidity of consonance and dissonance: The influence of musical context.

“…Regarding the influence of musical experience on C/D judgements, both behavioral and neuroscientific studies show that musicians are more sensitive to C/D than non-musicians (Brattico, Pallesen, Varyagina, Bailey, Anourova, Järvenpää, Eerola, Tervaniemi, 2009;Itoh, Suwazono, & Nakada, 2010;Roberts, 1986;Rogers, 2010;Schön Regnault, Ystad, & Besson, 2005). Further, musicians are more likely to rely on sensing the harmonicity of a chord in order to judge its C/D than their non-musician counterparts (Kung, Hsieh, Liou, Lin, Shaw, & Liang, 2014;McDermott, Lehr, & Oxenham, 2010).…”