A new multifeature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm for the study of music perception with more real-sounding stimuli

TY - CONF

T1 - A new multifeature mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm for the study of music perception with more real-sounding stimuli

AU - Quiroga Martinez, David Ricardo

AU - Hansen, Niels Christian

AU - Højlund, Andreas

AU - Brattico, Elvira

AU - Vuust, Peter

PY - 2017/10/26

Y1 - 2017/10/26

N2 - The MMN is a brain response elicited by deviants in a series of repetitive sounds that has been valuable for the study of music perception. However, most MMN experimental designs use simple tone patterns as stimuli, failing to represent the complexity of everyday music. Our goal was to develop a new paradigm using more real-sounding stimuli. Concretely, we wanted to assess the perception of nonrepetitive melodies when presented alone and when embedded in two-part music. An Alberti bass used previously served both as a comparison and as the second voice in the two-part stimuli. We used MEG to record nonmusicians’ responses to four deviants (mistuning, intensity, timbre and slide), while they watched a silent movie and listened to music in four conditions: bass only (“bass”), melody only (“melody”), bass in a high pitch range (“bass high”), and bass and melody together (“together”). We found MMNs for all deviants in the “melody” condition. However, mistunings and slide MMNs were reduced compared to the “bass high” condition, probably due to the higher pitch complexity of the melodies. Moreover, we found reduced MMNs in the two-part excerpts, likely due to competition for neural resources. Interestingly, this reduction did not hold for mistunings and slide in the melody, probably due to interval mistuning and the high voice superiority effect. Our results indicate that it is possible to use the MMN for the study of more real-sounding music and that stimulus complexity plays a crucial role in auditory discrimination as reflected in the MMN.

AB - The MMN is a brain response elicited by deviants in a series of repetitive sounds that has been valuable for the study of music perception. However, most MMN experimental designs use simple tone patterns as stimuli, failing to represent the complexity of everyday music. Our goal was to develop a new paradigm using more real-sounding stimuli. Concretely, we wanted to assess the perception of nonrepetitive melodies when presented alone and when embedded in two-part music. An Alberti bass used previously served both as a comparison and as the second voice in the two-part stimuli. We used MEG to record nonmusicians’ responses to four deviants (mistuning, intensity, timbre and slide), while they watched a silent movie and listened to music in four conditions: bass only (“bass”), melody only (“melody”), bass in a high pitch range (“bass high”), and bass and melody together (“together”). We found MMNs for all deviants in the “melody” condition. However, mistunings and slide MMNs were reduced compared to the “bass high” condition, probably due to the higher pitch complexity of the melodies. Moreover, we found reduced MMNs in the two-part excerpts, likely due to competition for neural resources. Interestingly, this reduction did not hold for mistunings and slide in the melody, probably due to interval mistuning and the high voice superiority effect. Our results indicate that it is possible to use the MMN for the study of more real-sounding music and that stimulus complexity plays a crucial role in auditory discrimination as reflected in the MMN.

M3 - Poster

T2 - Donders Discussions 2017

Y2 - 26 October 2017 through 27 October 2017

ER -