Biomedical subjects

Stefan Koelsch

Publications and source records attributed to Stefan Koelsch.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

Children processing music: electric brain responses reveal musical competence and gender differences.

Numerous studies investigated physiological correlates of the processing of musical information in adults. How these correlates develop during childhood is poorly understood. In the present study, we measured event-related electric brain potentials elicited in 5- and 9-year-old children while they listened to (major-minor tonal) music. Stimuli were chord sequences, infrequently containing harmonically inappropriate chords. Our results demonstrate that the degree of (in)appropriateness of the chords modified the brain responses in both groups according to music-theoretical principles. This suggests that already 5-year-old children process music according to a well-established cognitive representation of the major-minor tonal system and according to music-syntactic regularities. Moreover, we show that, in contrast to adults, an early negative brain response was left predominant in boys, whereas it was bilateral in girls, indicating a gender difference in children processing music, and revealing that children process music with a hemispheric weighting different from that of adults. Because children process, in contrast to adults, music in the same hemispheres as they process language, results indicate that children process music and language more similarly than adults. This finding might support the notion of a common origin of music and language in the human brain, and concurs with findings that demonstrate the importance of musical features of speech for the acquisition of language.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2003

Electric brain responses reveal gender differences in music processing.

The present study investigates gender differences in the functional organization of the brain for music processing. In the language domain, males appear to have greater left hemisphere control than females. Despite some overlap of neural structures and processes for the perception of music and language, gender differences of musical functions have so far not been reported. Data sets of three previous music experiments with event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were pooled and re-analyzed. Results demonstrate that an electrophysiological correlate of music-syntactic processing (ERAN, or music-syntactic MMN) is generated bilaterally in females, and with right hemispheric predominance in males. The present findings indicate that gender differences for the analysis of auditory information are not restricted to processes in the linguistic domain such as syntax, semantics, and phonology.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2003

Toward the neural basis of processing structure in music. Comparative results of different neurophysiological investigation methods.

In major-minor tonal music, chord functions are arranged according to certain regularities. The dominant-tonic progression, known as an authentic cadence, is often used as a marker of the end of a harmonic progression and has been considered a basic syntactic structure of major-minor tonal music by several music theorists and music psychologists. We review data from studies in which brain responses to an authentic cadence were compared to those elicited by music-syntactically inappropriate endings. In event-related electric brain potentials (recorded with EEG), the inappropriate endings elicit early right anterior negativity (ERAN), which is maximal around 200 ms after the presentation of an inappropriate chord. The ERAN is reminiscent of early anterior negativities elicited by syntactic incongruities during the perception of language. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data suggest that the ERAN is generated in the inferior frontolateral cortex, an area known to be crucially involved in the processing of (linguistic) syntax. Interestingly, the ERAN can be recorded in nonmusicians and in children, indicating that the ability to acquire (implicit) knowledge about musical regularities and to process musical information according to this knowledge is a general ability of the human brain. This ability is probably of great importance for the acquisition of language in infants and children.

Auditory Perception↗

PubMed2002

Electric brain responses to inappropriate harmonies during listening to expressive music.

OBJECTIVES: Recent studies with event-related brain potentials (ERPs) investigating music processing found (early) negativities with right-hemispheric predominance as a response to inappropriate harmonies within sequences of chords. The stimuli used in those studies were fairly artificial in order to control the experimental factors (e.g. variations in tempo and loudness were eliminated). This raises the question of whether these ERPs can also be elicited during listening to more naturalistic stimuli. METHODS: Excerpts from classical piano sonatas were taken from commercial CDs and presented to the participants while recording the continuous electroencephalogram. Expected chords and unexpected (transposed) chords were presented at the end of chord-sequences. RESULTS: Unexpected chords elicited a negativity which was maximal around 250 ms, visible over both hemispheres, and preponderant over right temporal leads. CONCLUSIONS: The found negativity is strongly reminiscent to both early right anterior negativity and right anterior-temporal negativity, suggesting that cognitive processes underlying these ERP components are not only elicited with fairly artificial experimental stimuli but also when listening to expressive music.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2002

Effects of musical expertise on the early right anterior negativity: an event-related brain potential study.

Event-related brain potentials in response to harmonically inappropriate chords were compared for musical experts and novices. Similar to previous studies, these chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN). The amplitude of the ERAN was clearly larger for musical experts than for novices, presumably because experts had more specific musical expectancies than novices. Chords with a physically deviant timbre elicited a mismatch negativity that did not differentiate the groups, indicating that the larger ERAN in experts was not due to a general enhanced auditory sensitivity. The ERAN reflects fast and automatic neural mechanisms that process complex musical (music-syntactic) irregularities, and the present results indicate that these mechanisms can be modulated by expertise.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Music matters: preattentive musicality of the human brain.

During listening to a musical piece, unexpected harmonies may evoke brain responses that are reflected electrically as an early right anterior negativity (ERAN) and a late frontal negativity (N5). In the present study we demonstrate that these components of the event-related potential can be evoked preattentively, that is, even when a musical stimulus is ignored. Both ERAN and N5 differed in amplitude as a function of music-theoretical principles. Participants had no special musical expertise; results thus provide evidence for an automatic processing of musical information in onmusicians."

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Bach speaks: a cortical "language-network" serves the processing of music.

The aim of the present study was the investigation of neural correlates of music processing with fMRI. Chord sequences were presented to the participants, infrequently containing unexpected musical events. These events activated the areas of Broca and Wernicke, the superior temporal sulcus, Heschl's gyrus, both planum polare and planum temporale, as well as the anterior superior insular cortices. Some of these brain structures have previously been shown to be involved in music processing, but the cortical network comprising all these structures has up to now been thought to be domain-specific for language processing. To what extent this network might also be activated by the processing of non-linguistic information has remained unknown. The present fMRI-data reveal that the human brain employs this neuronal network also for the processing of musical information, suggesting that the cortical network known to support language processing is less domain-specific than previously believed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗