Abstract
The frequency-following response (FFR) provides a measure of phase-locked auditory encoding in humans and has been used to study subcortical processing in the auditory system. While effects of experience on the FFR have been reported, few studies have examined whether individual differences in early sensory encoding have measurable effects on human performance. Absolute pitch (AP), the rare ability to label musical notes without reference notes, provides an excellent model system for testing how early neural encoding supports specialized auditory skills. Results show that the FFR predicts pitch labelling performance better than traditional measures related to AP (age of music onset, tonal language experience, pitch adjustment and just-noticeable-difference scores). Moreover, the stimulus type used to elicit the FFR (tones or speech) impacts predictive performance in a manner that is consistent with prior research. Additionally, the FFR predicts labelling performance for piano tones better than unfamiliar sine tones. Taken together, the FFR reliably distinguishes individuals based on their explicit pitch labeling abilities, which highlights the complex dynamics between sensory processing and cognition.
Highlights
The frequency-following response (FFR) provides a measure of phase-locked auditory encoding in humans and has been used to study subcortical processing in the auditory system
Just-noticeable difference (JND) task performance for self-reported Absolute pitch (AP) possessors was M = 0.849, SD = 0.0715, and M = 0.782, SD = 0.0918 for other musicians
Individual differences in the FFR have been related to performance on certain perceptual discrimination tasks[12] and such differences have been shown to emerge following training in such a task[9], but these individual differences were not specific to task-relevant spectral features and studies that relate auditory encoding to performance rarely compare the magnitude of FFR differences across stimuli from different domains
Summary
The frequency-following response (FFR) provides a measure of phase-locked auditory encoding in humans and has been used to study subcortical processing in the auditory system. Group differences in musical experience are related to the frequency-following response (FFR) for speech stimuli as well as music and have generalized beyond the specific context of experience They argue that the group difference in the auditory brainstem response (ABR) due to musical training predicts how the groups learn. Discrimination task, but the observed changes in FFR strength were not specific to stimuli that shared relevant characteristics with the trained stimuli, and correlations between FFR strength and performance metrics were nonsignificant While these studies support the notion that FFR features seem to relate to individual differences in perceptual acuity, the extent to which plasticity in early auditory structures supports cognitive abilities that are critical to behavior, such as categorization, remains an open question
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