Practice strategies of musicians modulate neural processing and the learning of sound-patterns.

Full Abstract

Previous studies suggest that pre-attentive auditory processing of musicians differs depending on the strategies used in music practicing and performance. This study aimed at systematically revealing whether there are differences in auditory processing between musicians preferring and not-preferring aural strategies such as improvising, playing by ear, and rehearsing by listening to records. Participants were assigned to aural and non-aural groups according to how much they employ aural strategies, as determined by a questionnaire. The change-related mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) was used to probe pre-attentive neural discrimination of simple sound features and melody-like patterns. Further, the musicians' behavioral accuracy in sound perception was tested with a discrimination task and the AMMA musicality test. The data indicate that practice strategies do not affect musicians' pre-attentive neural discrimination of changes in simple sound features but do modulate the speed of neural discrimination of interval and contour changes within melody-like patterns. Moreover, while the aural and non-aural groups did not differ in their initial neural accuracy for discriminating melody-like patterns, they differed after a focused training session. A correlation between behavioral and neural measures was also obtained. Taken together, these results suggest that auditory processing of musicians who prefer aural practice strategies differs in melodic contour and interval processing and perceptual learning, rather than in simple sound processing, in comparison to musicians preferring other practice strategies.

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Author information

Author/s: Seppänen, M (M); Brattico, E (E); Tervaniemi, M (M);

Affiliation: Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland. miia.seppanen(-atsign-)helsinki.fi

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neurobiology of learning and memory (Neurobiol Learn Mem), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 87 (issue 2) : pp 236-47

Dates: Created 2007/01/10; Completed 2007/03/21; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 17046293, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation - methods
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Auditory Perception - physiology
Brain Mapping
Electroencephalography - methods
Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology
Female

Female
Humans
Male
Music
Occupations
Practice (Psychology)
Reaction Time - physiology
Sound
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