0000000000116933
AUTHOR
Stefan Koelsch
Effects of Selective Attention on Syntax Processing in Music and Language
Abstract The present study investigated the effects of auditory selective attention on the processing of syntactic information in music and speech using event-related potentials. Spoken sentences or musical chord sequences were either presented in isolation, or simultaneously. When presented simultaneously, participants had to focus their attention either on speech, or on music. Final words of sentences and final harmonies of chord sequences were syntactically either correct or incorrect. Irregular chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN), whose amplitude was decreased when music was simultaneously presented with speech, compared to when only music was presented. However, t…
Processing of Musical Syntax Tonic versus Subdominant: An Event-related Potential Study
Abstract The present study investigates the effect of a change in syntactic-like musical function on event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Eight-chord piano sequences were presented to musically expert and novice listeners. Instructed to watch a movie and to ignore the musical sequences, the participants had to react when a chord was played with a different instrument than the piano. Participants were not informed that the relevant manipulation was the musical function of the last chord (target) of the sequences. The target chord acted either as a syntactically stable tonic chord (i.e., a C major chord in the key of C major) or as a less syntactically stable subdominant chord (i.e., a C ma…
Music and Action
Music performance includes planning, initiation, execution, monitoring, and correction of actions. This makes music performance a valuable tool for the study of human action and its neural correlates. This chapter reports action-related processes evoked by the perception of actions, and processes of error correction during music performance. Neuroscientific studies showed that, during the perception of action, neural systems are active that are also active during the performance of such actions. This supports the "common coding principle" stating that the late stages of perception and the early stages of action share a common representational format (such as the same neural code). Studies o…
Cognitive priming in sung and instrumental music: Activation of inferior frontal cortex
Neural correlates of the processing of musical syntax-like structures have been investigated via expectancy violation due to musically unrelated (i.e., unexpected) events in musical contexts. Previous studies reported the implication of inferior frontal cortex in musical structure processing. However - due to the strong musical manipulations - activations might be explained by sensory deviance detection or repetition priming. Our present study investigated neural correlates of musical structure processing with subtle musical violations in a musical priming paradigm. Instrumental and sung sequences ended on related and less-related musical targets. The material controlled sensory priming com…