Abstract
True absolute pitch (AP), labeling of pitches with semitone precision without a reference, is classically studied using isolated tones. However, AP is acquired and has its function within complex dynamic musical contexts. Here we examined event-related brain responses and underlying cerebral sources to endings of short expressive string quartets, investigating a homogeneous population of young highly trained pianists with half of them possessing true-AP. The pieces ended regularly or contained harmonic transgressions at closure that participants appraised. Given the millisecond precision of ERP analyses, this experimental plan allowed examining whether AP alters music processing at an early perceptual, or later cognitive level, or both, and which cerebral sources underlie differences with non-AP musicians. We also investigated the impact of AP on general auditory cognition. Remarkably, harmonic transgression sensitivity did not differ between AP and non-AP participants, and differences for auditory cognition were only marginal. The key finding of this study is the involvement of a microstate peaking around 60 ms after musical closure, characterizing AP participants. Concurring sources were estimated in secondary auditory areas, comprising the planum temporale, all transgression conditions collapsed. These results suggest that AP is not a panacea to become a proficient musician, but a rare perceptual feature.
Highlights
The present study applied electrical neuroimaging to investigate the influence of true absolute pitch on processing of complex classical music in pianists trained in the western classical repertoire
As our main interest lies in exploring differences between the Absolute pitch (AP) and NAP group for auditory processing of music, we focused on Event Related Potentials (ERPs) sources regarding the primary outcome of the microstate analysis, i.e., the early time period during which 2 spatially different microstates appeared in each group
As we collapsed all 3 conditions (R, Tsub and Tapp), the Global Field Power (GFP) Grand-Averages of AP and NAP were based on 239.18 ± 40.19 SD epochs for AP participants, and 253.75 ± 13.20 SD epochs for NAP participants
Summary
The present study applied electrical neuroimaging to investigate the influence of true absolute pitch on processing of complex classical music in pianists trained in the western classical repertoire. Levitin and Rogers (2005) propose an alternative more clement model of “latent” or quasi-absolute pitch (QAP). These authors could show that almost half of the non-musician Western population is able to sing pitches of familiar pop songs from memory with at least whole tone precision (Levitin, 1994). This finding is highly interesting in the context of musicality as a human universal, the current research focused exclusively on semitone precision AP with very high accuracy. True-AP could be anatomically dissociated from both Relative Pitch (RP) and QAP, with larger left-right planum temporale asymmetry in true-AP possessors (Wilson et al, 2009)
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