Pitch Memory Research Articles

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the supramarginal gyrus facilitates pitch memory

Functional neuroimaging studies have shown activation of the supramarginal gyrus during pitch memory tasks. A previous transcranial direct current stimulation study using cathodal stimulation over the left supramarginal gyrus reported a detrimental effect on short-term pitch memory performance, indicating an important role of the supramarginal gyrus in pitch memory. The current study aimed to determine whether pitch memory could be improved following anodal stimulation of the left supramarginal gyrus. The performances of non-musicians on two pitch memory tasks (pitch recognition and recall) and a visual memory control task following anodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation were compared. The results show that, post-stimulation, the anodal group but not the control group performed significantly better on both pitch memory tasks; performance did not differ on the face memory task. These findings provide strong support for the causal involvement of the left supramarginal gyrus in the pitch memory process, and highlight the potential efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation as a tool to improve pitch memory.

Absolute pitch memory: Its prevalence among musicians and dependence on the testing context

Absolute pitch (AP) is widely believed to be a rare ability possessed by only a small group of gifted and special individuals (AP possessors). While AP has fascinated psychologists, neuroscientists, and musicians for more than a century, no theory can satisfactorily explain why this ability is so rare and difficult to learn. Here, we show that AP ability appears rare because of the methodological issues of the standard pitch-naming test. Specifically, the standard test unnecessarily poses a high decisional demand on AP judgments and uses a testing context that is highly inconsistent with one's musical training. These extra cognitive challenges are not central to AP memory per se and have thus led to consistent underestimation of AP ability in the population. Using the standard test, we replicated the typical findings that the accuracy for general violinists was low (12.38 %; chance level = 0 %). With identical stimuli, scoring criteria, and participants, violinists attained 25 % accuracy in a pitch verification test in which the decisional demand of AP judgment was reduced. When the testing context was increasingly similar to their musical experience, verification accuracy improved further and reached 39 %, three times higher than that for the standard test. Results were replicated with a separate group of pianists. Our findings challenge current theories about AP and suggest that the prevalence of AP among musicians has been highly underestimated in prior work. A multimodal framework is proposed to better explain AP memory.

The influence of music-elicited emotions and relative pitch on absolute pitch memory for familiar melodies

Levitin's findings that nonmusicians could produce from memory the absolute pitches of self-selected pop songs have been widely cited in the music psychology literature. These findings suggest that latent absolute pitch (AP) memory may be a more widespread trait within the population than traditional AP labelling ability. However, it has been left unclear what factors may facilitate absolute pitch retention for familiar pieces of music. The aim of the present paper was to investigate factors that may contribute to latent AP memory using Levitin's sung production paradigm for AP memory and comparing results to the outcomes of a pitch labelling task, a relative pitch memory test, measures of music-induced emotions, and various measures of participants' musical backgrounds. Our results suggest that relative pitch memory and the quality and degree of music-elicited emotions impact on latent AP memory.

Auditory Training: Evidence for Neural Plasticity in Older Adults.

Improvements in digital amplification, cochlear implants, and other innovations have extended the potential for improving hearing function; yet, there remains a need for further hearing improvement in challenging listening situations, such as when trying to understand speech in noise or when listening to music. Here, we review evidence from animal and human models of plasticity in the brain's ability to process speech and other meaningful stimuli. We considered studies targeting populations of younger through older adults, emphasizing studies that have employed randomized controlled designs and have made connections between neural and behavioral changes. Overall results indicate that the brain remains malleable through older adulthood, provided that treatment algorithms have been modified to allow for changes in learning with age. Improvements in speech-in-noise perception and cognition function accompany neural changes in auditory processing. The training-related improvements noted across studies support the need to consider auditory training strategies in the management of individuals who express concerns about hearing in difficult listening situations. Given evidence from studies engaging the brain's reward centers, future research should consider how these centers can be naturally activated during training.

A Fröhlich effect and representational gravity in memory for auditory pitch.

Memory for the initial pitch of an auditory target that increased or decreased in auditory frequency was examined. Memory was displaced forward in the direction of pitch motion, and this is consistent with the Fröhlich effect previously observed for visual targets moving in visual physical space. The Fröhlich effect for pitch increased with faster target velocity and decreased if an auditory cue with the same pitch as the initial pitch of the target was presented before the target was presented. The Fröhlich effect was larger for descending pitch motion than for ascending pitch motion, and this is consistent with an influence of representational gravity. The data suggest that representation of auditory frequency space exhibits some of the same biases as representation of visual physical space, and implications for theories of attention in displacement and for crossmodal and multisensory representation of space are discussed.

The Role of Pitch Memory in Music Perception

The purpose of this paper is to review pitch memory, one of the less known aspects of music perception. In order to successfully perceive music, it is necessary to compare the pitch of successive notes in order to appreciate and recognize melodies. The process of recognizing and comparing the pitch of successive notes is called relative pitch. Pitch memory is important in the perception of relative pitch because it is necessary to hold the pitch of one note in memory momentarily before the next note is presented. Pitch memory is evaluated by altering a pitch discrimination task by placing silent intervals or intervals containing interference stimuli (e.g., noise, tones, speech) between the reference and comparison tones. Overall, research in this area suggests a significant relationship between pitch discrimination ability and pitch memory, and between pitch matching ability and pitch memory. Various stimulus and individual factors can also affect pitch memory ability.

Performance in a Pitch Memory Task by Visually Handicapped Children and Youths

Abstract The present work discusses results concerning sound perception obtained in a pitch memorization experiment for blind and visually impaired subjects (children and teenagers). Listeners were divided into two age groups: 7-13 year olds and 14-18 year olds. The study tested 20 individuals (8 congenitally blind and 12 visually impaired) and 20 sighted persons comprising reference groups. The duration of the experiments was as short as possible due to the fact that our listeners were children. To date, no study has described results of such experiment for blind/visually handicapped children and teenagers. In the pitch memory experiment blind teenagers outperformed blind children and both age groups of visually impaired subjects in two out of three tested cases. These results may have implications for the development of auditory training in orientation and mobility of young visually handicapped people.

Pitch discrimination and melodic memory in children with autism spectrum disorders

Pitch perception is enhanced among persons with autism. We extended this finding to memory for pitch and melody among school-aged children. The purpose of this study was to investigate pitch memory in musically untrained children with autism spectrum disorders, aged 7-13 years, and to compare it to that of age- and IQ-matched typically developing children. The children were required to discriminate isolated tones in two differing contexts as well to remember melodies after a period of 1 week. The tasks were designed to employ both short- and long-term memory for music. For the pitch discrimination task, the children first had to indicate whether two isolated tones were the same or different when the second was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Second, the children discriminated the tones within the context of melody. They were asked whether two melodies were the same or different when the leading tone of the second melody was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Long-term memory for melody was also investigated, as the children attempted to recall four different two-bar melodies after 1 week. The children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrated elevated pitch discrimination ability in the single-tone and melodic context as well as superior long-term memory for melody. Pitch memory correlated positively with scores on measures of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability. Superior short- and long-term pitch memory was found among children with autism spectrum disorders. The results indicate an aspect to cognitive functioning that may predict both enhanced nonverbal reasoning ability and atypical language development.

Working memory for pitch, timbre, and words

Aiming to further our understanding of fundamental mechanisms of auditory working memory (WM), the present study compared performance for three auditory materials (words, tones, timbres). In a forward recognition task (Experiment 1) participants indicated whether the order of the items in the second sequence was the same as in the first sequence. In a backward recognition task (Experiment 2) participants indicated whether the items of the second sequence were played in the correct backward order. In Experiment 3 participants performed an articulatory suppression task during the retention delay of the backward task. To investigate potential length effects the number of items per sequence was manipulated. Overall findings underline the benefit of a cross-material experimental approach and suggest that human auditory WM is not a unitary system. Whereas WM processes for timbres differed from those for tones and words, similarities and differences were observed for words and tones: Both types of stimuli appear to rely on rehearsal mechanisms, but might differ in the involved sensorimotor codes.

The functional anatomy of non-verbal (pitch memory) function in left and right anterior temporal lobectomy patients

An fMRI pitch memory task was administered to left and right anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) patients. The goal was to verify the neuroanatomical correlates of non-verbal memory, and to determine if pitch memory tasks can identify cognitive risk prior to ATL. The data showed that the bilateral posterior superior temporal lobes implement pitch memory in both ATL patients and NCs (normal controls), indicating that the task can be accomplished with either anterior temporal lobe resected. NCs activate the posterior temporal lobes more strongly than ATL patients during highly accurate performance. In contrast, both ATL groups activate the anterior cingulate in association with accuracy. While our data clarifies the functional neuroanatomy of pitch memory, it also indicates that such tasks do not serve well to lateralize and functionally map potentially “at risk” non-verbal memory skills prior to ATL.

Auditory Processing in High-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder including abnormalities in perceptual processing. We measure perception in a battery of tests across speech (filtering, phoneme categorization, multisensory integration) and music (pitch memory, meter categorization, harmonic priming). We found that compared to controls, the ASD group showed poorer filtering, less audio-visual integration, less specialization for native phonemic and metrical categories, and a higher instance of absolute pitch. No group differences were found in harmonic priming. Our results are discussed in a developmental framework where culture-specific knowledge acquired early compared to late in development is most impaired, perhaps because of early-accelerated brain growth in ASD. These results suggest that early auditory remediation is needed for good communication and social functioning.

Extreme Ultraviolet Process Optimization for Contact Layer of 14 nm Node Logic and 16 nm Half Pitch Memory Devices

Extreme Ultraviolet Process Optimization for Contact Layer of 14 nm Node Logic and 16 nm Half Pitch Memory Devices

Extreme Ultraviolet Process Optimization for Contact Layer of 14 nm Node Logic and 16 nm Half Pitch Memory Devices

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is considered the most promising single exposure technology at the 27 nm half-pitch node and beyond. The imaging performance of ASML TWINSCAN NXE:3100 has been demonstrated to be able to resolve 26 nm Flash gate layer and 16 nm static random access memory (SRAM) metal layer with a 0.25 numerical aperture (NA) and conventional illumination. Targeting for high volume manufacturing, ASML TWINSCAN NXE:3300B, featuring a 0.33 NA lens with off-axis illumination, will generate a higher contrast aerial image due to improved diffraction order collection efficiency and is expected to reduce target dose via mask biasing. This work performed a simulation to determine how EUV high NA imaging benefits the mask rule check trade-offs required to achieve viable lithography solutions in two device application scenarios: a 14 nm node 6T-SRAM contact layer and a 16 nm half-pitch NAND Flash staggered contact layer. In each application, the three-dimensional mask effects versus Kirchhoff mask were also investigated.

Do individuals with Williams syndrome possess absolute pitch?

Although absolute pitch (AP) is a rare skill in typical development, individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are often referred to as possessing this musical ability. However, there is paucity of research on the topic. In this article, 2 studies were conducted to evaluate AP in WS. In Study 1, seven musically trained individuals with WS, 14 musically trained typically developing controls matched for chronological age, and 2 experienced musicians with AP completed a pitch-identification task. Although the task was a classical assessment of AP, it required participants to have musical knowledge, and the availability and accessibility of musically trained individuals with WS is very low. In Study 2, a paradigm suitable for evaluating AP in individuals without musical training was used, which made it possible to evaluate a larger group of participants with WS. A pitch memory test for isolated tones was presented to 27 individuals with WS, 54 typically developing peers matched for chronological age, and the 2 musicians with AP. Both individuals with WS and their controls obtained low results in the two studies. They showed an arbitrary pattern of response, and their performance was far from that of musicians with AP. Therefore, participants with WS did not appear to possess AP. Unlike what is usually claimed, results suggest that AP is not a remarkable ability in WS and that, as in the typically developing population, this musical ability is also rare in individuals with WS.

Task-dependent activations of human auditory cortex during spatial discrimination and spatial memory tasks

In the present study, we applied high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the human auditory cortex (AC) and adjacent areas to compare activations during spatial discrimination and spatial n-back memory tasks that were varied parametrically in difficulty. We found that activations in the anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) were stronger during spatial discrimination than during spatial memory, while spatial memory was associated with stronger activations in the inferior parietal lobule (IPL). We also found that wide AC areas were strongly deactivated during the spatial memory tasks. The present AC activation patterns associated with spatial discrimination and spatial memory tasks were highly similar to those obtained in our previous study comparing AC activations during pitch discrimination and pitch memory (Rinne et al., 2009). Together our previous and present results indicate that discrimination and memory tasks activate anterior and posterior AC areas differently and that this anterior-posterior division is present both when these tasks are performed on spatially invariant (pitch discrimination vs. memory) or spatially varying (spatial discrimination vs. memory) sounds. These results also further strengthen the view that activations of human AC cannot be explained only by stimulus-level parameters (e.g., spatial vs. nonspatial stimuli) but that the activations observed with fMRI are strongly dependent on the characteristics of the behavioral task. Thus, our results suggest that in order to understand the functional structure of AC a more systematic investigation of task-related factors affecting AC activations is needed.

Songs, cell phones, absolute pitch: Long-term pitch memory for familiar stimuli

Absolute pitch (AP) is a rare phenomenon as formally defined, but long-term pitch memory appears much more common when tests involve familiar musical material and do not require the use of formally learned pitch labels. It is unclear whether AP possession confers additional advantages to long-term pitch memory in such tasks or merely combines a rare ability to form pitch-label associations with a more general capacity for pitch memory. To test this, 36 trained musicians—18 AP possessors and 18 non-possessors with equivalent age of onset and duration of musical training—were asked to recall and vocalize a familiar song, and their responses were compared with the pitches of the actual recordings; this was repeated with their cell phone ringtones. Both groups were significantly more accurate than chance on the song task, but only the AP possessors performed above chance on the ringtone task. The findings confirm the existence of widespread long-term pitch memory but also point to an AP advantage under some circumstances.

Electrophysiological correlates of the maintenance of the representation of pitch objects in acoustic short‐term memory

We studied the neuronal mechanisms that implement acoustic short-term memory (ASTM) for pitch using event-related potentials (ERP). Experiment 1 isolated an ERP component, the sustained anterior negativity (SAN), that increased in amplitude with increasing memory load in ASTM using stimuli with equal duration at all memory loads. The SAN load effect found in Experiment 1, when pitch had to be remembered to perform the task, was absent in Experiment 2 using the same sounds when memory was not required. In Experiment 3, the memory task was performed without or with concurrent articulatory suppression during the retention interval to prevent rehearsal via an articulatory loop. Load-related effects observed in Experiment 1 were found again, whether participants engaged in concurrent suppression or not. The results suggest that the SAN reflects activity required to maintain pitch objects in an ASTM system that is distinct from articulatory rehearsal.

Exploration on potential connections between music education and teaching Mandarin to westerners: Evidence from Taiwanese universities

Studying tonal languages has become increasingly popular in the West over the past decade due to the growing economy in the Far East. It has been argued that westerners who have a background in music find it easier to learn a tonal language, including Mandarin. The current study aimed at exploring the perceptions and experiences of western students learning Mandarin and those of their teachers. The focus was on exploring the role of music and music software in Mandarin teaching and learning practice. A total of 29 students and 25 teachers were interviewed at two different universities in Taiwan. The collective response was that musical engagement and using music in the classroom can be of great benefit for the students. Reasons for such a view varied, ranging from the effect of music on enhancing memory for pitch to clearer demonstration of Mandarin pronunciation through the use of singing. In addition, software that depicts the pitch changes of the language and turns them into a song was regarded as a beneficial pedagogic tool. The present study demonstrates that a future, systematic study of developing and evaluating such a pedagogic software would be essential in clarifying the indicated connections.

EPS Prize Lecture: Characterizing congenital amusia

The ability to make sense of the music in our environment involves sophisticated cognitive mechanisms that, for most people, are acquired effortlessly and in early life. A special population of individuals, with a disorder termed congenital amusia, report lifelong difficulties in this regard. Exploring the nature of this developmental disorder provides a window onto the cognitive architecture of typical musical processing, as well as allowing a study of the relationship between processing of music and other domains, such as language. The present article considers findings concerning pitch discrimination, pitch memory, contour processing, experiential aspects of music listening in amusia, and emerging evidence concerning the neurobiology of the disorder. A simplified model of melodic processing is outlined, and possible loci of the cognitive deficit are discussed.

Memory for pitch in congenital amusia: Beyond a fine-grained pitch discrimination problem

Congenital amusia is a disorder that affects the perception and production of music. While amusia has been associated with deficits in pitch discrimination, several reports suggest that memory deficits also play a role. The present study investigated short-term memory span for pitch-based and verbal information in 14 individuals with amusia and matched controls. Analogous adaptive-tracking procedures were used to generate tone and digit spans using stimuli that exceeded psychophysically measured pitch perception thresholds. Individuals with amusia had significantly smaller tone spans, whereas their digits spans were a similar size to those of controls. An automated operation span task was used to determine working memory capacity. Working memory deficits were seen in only a small subgroup of individuals with amusia. These findings support the existence of a pitch-specific component within short-term memory and suggest that congenital amusia is more than a disorder of fine-grained pitch discrimination.