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Sketchpad Series

Neural Responses to Disturbances of Musical Phrase in Musicians and Non-Musicians: an ERP Study

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

Emma Barnard¹ (emmarose1213@gmail.com), Grit Herzmann¹; ¹The College of Wooster

Music has been shown to have beneficial impacts on neurodevelopment and neurodegenerative diseases. Music perception involves complex cognitive processes necessary to decipher elements of music like pitch and timbre. Musical expertise involves training in these cognitive processes and can be studied to further understand the cognitive and neural processes underlying music cognition. This study investigates the underlying brain processes of disruptions in musical phrases. It examines how disruptions (called deviants) in pitch, timbre, intensity, and slide are processed within complex musical phrases (i.e., melodies) and what impact musical expertise has on these processes of music cognition. Participants were musicians (N = 27) and non-musicians (N = 27). To quantify musical expertise, participants took the Musical Ear Test and Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index. Stimuli consisted of single music notes arranged in pseudo-randomized melodies with deviants every eight notes. EEG data was collected to measure the MMN, P3, and N1 ERP components. Data collection is complete and preliminary data will be presented. We expect to find no change in N1 between musicians and non-musicians, but larger differences between standard and deviant melodies in MMN and P3 amplitudes in musicians. The lack of change in N1 amplitudes is hypothesized because of similar levels of surprise, whereas, the MMN and P3 are assumed to show the effects of musical expertise because musicians have stronger higher-order predictions for melodies resulting from prior training. The results of this study will provide insights into the time course of music cognition and the impacts of musical expertise.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition