Open AccessTones and numbers: A combined EEG–MEG study on the effects of musical expertise in magnitude comparisons of audiovisual stimuli
Author(s) -
Paraskevopoulos Evangelos,
Kuchenbuch Anja,
Herholz Sibylle C.,
Foroglou Nikolaos,
Bamidis Panagiotis,
Pantev Christo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.22558
Subject(s) - magnitude (astronomy) , electroencephalography , psychology , musical , audiology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , communication , physics , art , visual arts , medicine , astronomy
Abstract This study investigated the cortical responses underlying magnitude comparisons of multisensory stimuli and examined the effect that musical expertise has in this process. The comparative judgments were based on a newly learned rule binding the auditory and visual stimuli within the context of magnitude comparisons: “the higher the pitch of the tone, the larger the number presented.” The cortical responses were measured by simultaneous MEG\EEG recordings and a combined source analysis with individualized realistic head models was performed. Musical expertise effects were investigated by comparing musicians to non‐musicians. Congruent audiovisual stimuli, corresponding to the newly learned rule, elicited activity in frontotemporal and occipital areas. In contrast, incongruent stimuli activated temporal and parietal regions. Musicians when compared with nonmusicians showed increased differences between congruent and incongruent stimuli in a prefrontal region, thereby indicating that music expertise may affect multisensory comparative judgments within a generalized representation of analog magnitude. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5389–5400, 2014 . © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.