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| Research article summary (published 4 May 2009): |
Selective subcortical enhancement of musical intervals in musicians.
Full Abstract
By measuring the auditory brainstem response to two musical intervals, the major sixth (E3 and G2) and the minor seventh (E3 and F#2), we found that musicians have a more specialized sensory system for processing behaviorally relevant aspects of sound. Musicians had heightened responses to the harmonics of the upper tone (E), as well as certain combination tones (sum tones) generated by nonlinear processing in the auditory system. In music, the upper note is typically carried by the upper voice, and the enhancement of the upper tone likely reflects musicians' extensive experience attending to the upper voice. Neural phase locking to the temporal periodicity of the amplitude-modulated envelope, which underlies the perception of musical harmony, was also more precise in musicians than nonmusicians. Neural enhancements were strongly correlated with years of musical training, and our findings, therefore, underscore the role that long-term experience with music plays in shaping auditory sensory encoding.
Author information
Author/s: Lee, Kyung Myun (KM); Skoe, Erika (E); Kraus, Nina (N); Ashley, Richard (R);
Affiliation: Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2009-May; vol 29 (issue 18) : pp 5832-40
Dates: Created 2009/05/07; Completed 2009/05/28;
PMID: 19420250, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 5/28/2009, IMS Date: 28 May 2009 00:00:00)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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