Research article summary (published 29 Sep 2009):

Conceptual processing in music as revealed by N400 effects on words and musical targets.

Full Abstract

The cognitive processing of concepts, that is, abstract general ideas, has been mostly studied with language. However, other domains, such as music, can also convey concepts. Koelsch et al. [Koelsch, S., Kasper, E., Sammler, D., Schulze, K., Gunter, T., & Friederici, A. D. Music, language and meaning: Brain signatures of semantic processing. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 302-307, 2004] showed that 10 sec of music can influence the semantic processing of words. However, the length of the musical excerpts did not allow the authors to study the effect of words on musical targets. In this study, we decided to replicate Koelsch et al. findings using 1-sec musical excerpts (Experiment 1). This allowed us to study the reverse influence, namely, of a linguistic context on conceptual processing of musical excerpts (Experiment 2). In both experiments, we recorded behavioral and electrophysiological responses while participants were presented 50 related and 50 unrelated pairs (context/target). Experiments 1 and 2 showed a larger N400 component of the event-related brain potentials to targets following a conceptually unrelated compared to a related context. The presence of an N400 effect with musical targets suggests that music may convey concepts. The relevance of these results for the comprehension of music as a structured set of conceptual units and for the domain specificity of the mechanisms underlying N400 effects are discussed.

Author information

Author/s: Daltrozzo, Jérôme (J); Schön, Daniele (D);

Affiliation: Mediterranean Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences, CNRS and University of the Mediterranean, Marseille, France. daltrozzo(-atsign-)incm.cnrs-mrs.fr

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Journal of cognitive neuroscience (J Cogn Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Oct; vol 21 (issue 10) : pp 1882-92

Dates: Created 2009/08/24; Completed 2009/10/29;

PMID: 18823240, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/29/2009, IMS Date: )

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 Adult Analysis of Variance Auditory Perception - physiology Brain Mapping Concept Formation - physiology Electroencephalography Evoked Potentials - physiology

Female Humans Male Music Reaction Time - physiology Semantics Vocabulary Young Adult

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