Open AccessMismatch negativity reflects asymmetric pre-attentive harmonic interval discrimination
Author(s) -
Luise Wagner,
Torsten Rahne,
Stefan K. Plontke,
Nico Heidekrüger
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0196176
Subject(s) - mismatch negativity , interval (graph theory) , negativity effect , harmonic , electroencephalography , statistical physics , audiology , psychology , physics , cognitive psychology , mathematics , medicine , neuroscience , combinatorics , quantum mechanics
Objective Western music is based on intervals; thus, interval discrimination is important for distinguishing the character of melodies or tracking melodies in polyphonic music. In this study the encoding of intervals in simultaneously presented sound is studied. Study design In an electrophysiological experiment in 15 normal-hearing non-musicians, major thirds or fifths were presented in a controlled oddball paradigm. Harmonic intervals were created by simultaneously presented sinusoidals with randomized root frequency. Mismatch negativity (MMN) responses were measured with an EEG recording. The discrimination index was calculated in a psychoacoustic experiment. Results A clear MMN response was found for the major third but not for the fifth. The neural generators were located within the auditory cortices. Psychoacoustically, no evidence was found that the subjects were able to detect the deviants. Conclusions We conclude that pre-attentive discrimination of harmonic interval size is, in principle, possible in listeners without musical training although simultaneous presentation makes it harder to distinguish compared to non-overlapping intervals. Furthermore we see a difference in the response to infrequent dissonant stimuli in consonant standard stimuli compared to the opposite, rare consonant stimuli in dissonant standard stimuli.