Schedule of Events | Symposia

Evoked Spectral Power in EEG decodes Musical Pitch Imagery in Auditory Cortex in EEG

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Miyoung Chung¹ (miyoung.chung@mail.mcgill.ca), Andrea R. Halpern², Robert J. Zatorre¹; ¹Montreal Neurological Institute, ²Bucknell University

The phenomenon of imagery evokes perceptual-like experience in the absence of external stimuli, reflecting shared neural activity with perception. Musical imagery has become a compelling focus in neuroscience with its relevance to musical abilities and learning. Using EEG, this study examines the neural activity in musical pitch perception and imagery using a familiar melody task. Twenty-three participants listened to the first part of a melody, imagined its continuation, and completed a tone-matching task to determine if a test tone matched the original note of the melody. Decoding analysis using support vector machine was performed to classify each of seven tones based on evoked spectral power in the theta to beta frequency bands, known as representing top-down processing, during both perception and imagery. Decoding results exceeded chance level classification accuracy in imagery for evoked power, representing the phase-locked activity in the brain corresponding to the event (average 28.26%, chance: 20.65%). On the other hand, the decoding results when employing the induced power representing higher cognitive activity demonstrated near chance-level classification accuracy, suggesting the importance of evoked power activity for musical imagery. The same trend was revealed when this decoding algorithm was applied to perception (average 40.62%, chance: 31.66%), indicating shared evoked spectral patterns between perception and imagery. Imagery Mismatch Negativity (iMMN) analysis further identified greater right-hemisphere negativity during the tone-matching task, consistent with MMN findings in music perception. These results emphasize the significance of phase-locked neural activity in the auditory cortex, advancing our understanding of the neural basis of musical imagery.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition