Bridging the gap between perceptual and cognitive perspectives on absolute pitch (original) (raw)

Neural correlates of absolute pitch: A review

Musicae Scientiae, 2016

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify and/or produce specific music notes without a reference tone from the Western tonal system. Functional imaging studies show that AP is subserved by a network of interconnected neural structures including the left posterior dorsolateral frontal cortex (DLFC), the bilateral planum temporale (PT), and other brain regions. Neurophysiological studies show that AP possessors do not always require context updating during pitch identification due to possible “tonal templates”, and that AP appears to emerge at a late processing stage that is associated with multiple cognitive strategies and is facilitated by music training at early ages. Morphometry studies show decreased cortical thickness and gray matter concentration among those with AP, which may reflect increased efficiency of AP skill. Graph theoretical analyses of cortical thickness covariations show involvement of higher-order auditory processing, working memory, and semantic memory proc...

The left dorsal stream causally mediates the tone labeling in absolute pitch

2020

BackgroundAbsolute pitch (AP) refers to the ability of effortlessly identifying given pitches without the reliance on any reference pitch. Correlative evidence suggests that the left posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is responsible for the process underlying pitch labeling in AP.ObjectiveHere, we aimed at investigating the causal relationship between the DLPFC and the pitch-labeling process underlying AP.MethodsTo address this, we measured sight-reading performance of right-handed AP possessors and matched control musicians (N =18 per sample) under cathodal and sham transcranial direct current stimulation of the left DLPFC. The participants were instructed to report visually presenting notations as accurately and fast as possible by playing with their right hand on a piano. The notations were simultaneously presented with distracting auditory stimuli that either matched or mismatched them in different semitone degrees.ResultsUnlike the control participants, the AP pos...

Increased Volume and Function of Right Auditory Cortex as a Marker for Absolute Pitch

Cerebral Cortex, 2013

Absolute pitch (AP) perception is the auditory ability to effortlessly recognize the pitch of any given tone without external reference. To study the neural substrates of this rare phenomenon, we developed a novel behavioral test, which excludes memory-based interval recognition and permits quantification of AP proficiency independently of relative pitch cues. AP-and non-AP-possessing musicians were studied with morphological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography. Gray matter volume of the right Heschl's gyrus (HG) was highly correlated with AP proficiency. Right-hemispheric auditory evoked fields were increased in the AP group. fMRI revealed an AP-dependent network of right planum temporale, secondary somatosensory, and premotor cortices, as well as left-hemispheric "Broca's" area. We propose the right HG as an anatomical marker of AP and suggest that a righthemispheric network mediates AP "perception," whereas pitch "labeling" takes place in the left hemisphere.

Functional anatomy of musical processing in listeners with absolute pitch and relative pitch

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1998

We used both structural and functional brain imaging techniques to investigate the neural basis of absolute pitch (AP), a specialized skill present in some musicians. By using positron emission tomography, we measured cerebral blood f low during the presentation of musical tones to AP possessors and to control musicians without AP. Listening to musical tones resulted in similar patterns of increased cerebral blood f low in auditory cortical areas in both groups, as expected. The AP group also demonstrated activation of the left posterior dorsolateral frontal cortex, an area thought to be related to learning conditional associations. However, a similar pattern of left dorsolateral frontal activity was also observed in non-AP subjects when they made relative pitch judgments of intervals, such as minor or major. Conversely, activity within the right inferior frontal cortex was observed in control but not in AP subjects during the interval-judgment task, suggesting that AP possessors need not access working memory mechanisms in this task. MRI measures of cortical volume indicated a larger left planum temporale in the AP group, which correlated with performance on an pitch-naming task. Our findings suggest that AP may not be associated with a unique pattern of cerebral activity but rather may depend on the recruitment of a specialized network involved in the retrieval and manipulation of verbal-tonal associations.

Absolute pitch: perception, coding, and controversies

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2005

Recent findings in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology are converging to shed light on the nature of processing, categorization and memory for pitch in humans and animals. Although most people are unable to name or place pitch values in consistent, well-defined categories, as they do for color, stable long-term memory for pitch has been shown in certain animal species, in infants, and in both adult musicians and nonmusicians. 'Absolute pitch', the rare ability to label pitches without external reference, appears to require acquisition early in life, and involves specialized brain mechanisms, now partially identified. Research on pitch coding strategies informs wider theories in cognitive science of semantic memory, and the nature of perceptual categories.

The neurocognitive components of pitch processing: insights from absolute pitch

Cerebral …, 2009

The natural variability of pitch naming ability in the population (known as absolute pitch or AP) provides an ideal method for investigating individual differences in pitch processing and auditory knowledge formation and representation. We have demonstrated the involvement of different cognitive processes in AP ability that reflects varying skill expertise in the presence of similar early age of onset of music tuition. These processes were related to different regions of brain activity, including those involved in pitch working memory (right prefrontal cortex) and the long-term representation of pitch (superior temporal gyrus). They reflected expertise through the use of context dependent pitch cues and the level of automaticity of pitch naming. They impart functional significance to structural asymmetry differences in the planum temporale of musicians and establish a neurobiological basis for an AP template. More generally, they indicate variability of knowledge representation in the presence of environmental fostering of early cognitive development that translates to differences in cognitive ability.

Auditory Cortex Represents Both Pitch Judgments and the Corresponding Acoustic Cues

Current Biology, 2013

The neural processing of sensory stimuli involves a transformation of physical stimulus parameters into perceptual features, and elucidating where and how this transformation occurs is one of the ultimate aims of sensory neurophysiology. Recent studies have shown that the firing of neurons in early sensory cortex can be modulated by multisensory interactions , motor behavior , and reward feedback , but it remains unclear whether neural activity is more closely tied to perception, as indicated by behavioral choice, or to the physical properties of the stimulus. We investigated which of these properties are predominantly represented in auditory cortex by recording local field potentials (LFPs) and multiunit spiking activity in ferrets while they discriminated the pitch of artificial vowels. We found that auditory cortical activity is informative both about the fundamental frequency (F0) of a target sound and also about the pitch that the animals appear to perceive given their behavioral responses. Surprisingly, although the stimulus F0 was well represented at the onset of the target sound, neural activity throughout auditory cortex frequently predicted the reported pitch better than the target F0.

An auditory neural correlate suggests a mechanism underlying holistic pitch perception

PloS one, 2007

Current theories of auditory pitch perception propose that cochlear place (spectral) and activity timing pattern (temporal) information are somehow combined within the brain to produce holistic pitch percepts, yet the neural mechanisms for integrating these two kinds of information remain obscure. To examine this process in more detail, stimuli made up of three pure tones whose components are individually resolved by the peripheral auditory system, but that nonetheless elicit a holistic, "missing fundamental" pitch percept, were played to human listeners. A technique was used to separate neural timing activity related to individual components of the tone complexes from timing activity related to an emergent feature of the complex (the envelope), and the region of the tonotopic map where information could originate from was simultaneously restricted by masking noise. Pitch percepts were mirrored to a very high degree by a simple combination of component-related and envelope...