0000000000505543
AUTHOR
Tiina Tupala
Expertise in folk music alters the brain processing of Western harmony
In various paradigms of modern neurosciences of music, experts of Western classical music have displayed superior brain architecture when compared with individuals without explicit training in music. In this paper, we show that chord violations embedded in musical cadences were neurally processed in a facilitated manner also by musicians trained in Finnish folk music. This result, obtained by using early right anterior negativity (ERAN) as an index of harmony processing, suggests that tonal processing is advanced in folk musicians by their long-term exposure to both Western and non-Western music.
Modulated neural processing of Western harmony in folk musicians
A chord deviating from the conventions of Western tonal music elicits an early right anterior negativity (ERAN) in inferofrontal brain regions. Here, we tested whether the ERAN is modulated by expertise in more than one music culture, as typical of folk musicians. Finnish folk musicians and nonmusicians participated in electroencephalography recordings. The cadences consisted of seven chords. In incongruous cadences, the third, fifth, or seventh chord was a Neapolitan. The ERAN to the Neapolitans was enhanced in folk musicians compared to nonmusicians. Folk musicians showed an enhanced P3a for the ending Neapolitan. The Neapolitan at the fifth position was perceived differently and elicited…