TY - JOUR

T1 - Enhanced mismatch negativity in harmonic compared with inharmonic sounds

AU - Quiroga-Martinez, David Ricardo

AU - Basiński, Krzysztof

AU - Nasielski, Jonathan

AU - Tillmann, Barbara

AU - Brattico, Elvira

AU - Cholvy, Fanny

AU - Fornoni, Lesly

AU - Vuust, Peter

AU - Caclin, Anne

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience published by Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2022/9

Y1 - 2022/9

N2 - Many natural sounds have frequency spectra composed of integer multiples of a fundamental frequency. This property, known as harmonicity, plays an important role in auditory information processing. However, the extent to which harmonicity influences the processing of sound features beyond pitch is still unclear. This is interesting because harmonic sounds have lower information entropy than inharmonic sounds. According to predictive processing accounts of perception, this property could produce more salient neural responses due to the brain's weighting of sensory signals according to their uncertainty. In the present study, we used electroencephalography to investigate brain responses to harmonic and inharmonic sounds commonly occurring in music: Piano tones and hi-hat cymbal sounds. In a multifeature oddball paradigm, we measured mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a responses to timbre, intensity, and location deviants in listeners with and without congenital amusia—an impairment of pitch processing. As hypothesized, we observed larger amplitudes and earlier latencies (for both MMN and P3a) in harmonic compared with inharmonic sounds. These harmonicity effects were modulated by sound feature. Moreover, the difference in P3a latency between harmonic and inharmonic sounds was larger for controls than amusics. We propose an explanation of these results based on predictive coding and discuss the relationship between harmonicity, information entropy, and precision weighting of prediction errors.

AB - Many natural sounds have frequency spectra composed of integer multiples of a fundamental frequency. This property, known as harmonicity, plays an important role in auditory information processing. However, the extent to which harmonicity influences the processing of sound features beyond pitch is still unclear. This is interesting because harmonic sounds have lower information entropy than inharmonic sounds. According to predictive processing accounts of perception, this property could produce more salient neural responses due to the brain's weighting of sensory signals according to their uncertainty. In the present study, we used electroencephalography to investigate brain responses to harmonic and inharmonic sounds commonly occurring in music: Piano tones and hi-hat cymbal sounds. In a multifeature oddball paradigm, we measured mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a responses to timbre, intensity, and location deviants in listeners with and without congenital amusia—an impairment of pitch processing. As hypothesized, we observed larger amplitudes and earlier latencies (for both MMN and P3a) in harmonic compared with inharmonic sounds. These harmonicity effects were modulated by sound feature. Moreover, the difference in P3a latency between harmonic and inharmonic sounds was larger for controls than amusics. We propose an explanation of these results based on predictive coding and discuss the relationship between harmonicity, information entropy, and precision weighting of prediction errors.

KW - amusia

KW - auditory perception

KW - event-related potentials

KW - harmonicity

KW - pitch perception

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134762845&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/ejn.15769

DO - 10.1111/ejn.15769

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35833941

AN - SCOPUS:85134762845

VL - 56

SP - 4583

EP - 4599

JO - European Journal of Neuroscience

JF - European Journal of Neuroscience

SN - 0953-816X

IS - 5

ER -