Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Musicians have considerable experience naming pitch-classes with verbal (e.g., Doh, Ré, Mi, etc.) and semiotic tags (e.g., musical notation, etc.), which can become automatic. Such experience may facilitate auditory processing even when there is conflicting information. However, there is a special instance (e.g., absolute pitch) where a strong association between perceived pitch and verbal label could be detrimental when conflicting information not usually detectable by the general population is perceived (i.e., conflicting verbal encodings). To better understand how neuronal systems tune to perceptual inputs and hone conscious control over abstract associational structures (e.g., language, music, etc.), we measured scalp-recorded event-related potentials while non-musicians and musicians with absolute or relative pitch performed three different auditory Stroop tasks. In separate blocks of trials, participants were presented with congruent or incongruent auditory words from English language (standard auditory Stroop), Romanic solemnization or German keycode lexicons (the latter two versions require some knowledge of music notation). Musicians with absolute pitch were more accurate when responding to incongruent English words than musicians with relative pitch as well as non-musicians who showed significantly lowered accuracy for incongruent compared to congruent conditions for this task unlike the absolute pitch group. Relative to congruent stimuli, incongruent trials generated an increased negativity that peaked between 325 and 525 ms after sound onset (N450) over the central scalp area. This modulation is considered to be a neural index of inhibitory executive control processing and conflict resolution and was larger in the auditory word Stroop than in the other two versions of the Stroop task. This neural index was also larger in non-musicians than musicians with absolute or relative pitch. In musicians, the reduced modulation associated with processing cognitive conflict may reflect more efficient processing. Only musicians with absolute pitch showed significant congruity effects in both N450 and P600 modulations when stimuli were presented as Germanic keycodes (i.e., C or G). This suggests that absolute pitch possessors may process alpha-numeric encodings as word forms with a semantic and syntactic value, unlike their relative pitch possessing counterparts and non-musically trained individuals.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Vivek Sharma
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3087860505