Pitch Identification Research Articles

Behavioral and neural measures of confidence using a novel auditory pitch identification task.

Observers can discriminate between correct versus incorrect perceptual decisions with feelings of confidence. The centro-parietal positivity build-up rate (CPP slope) has been suggested as a likely neural signature of accumulated evidence, which may guide both perceptual performance and confidence. However, CPP slope also covaries with reaction time, which also covaries with confidence in previous studies, and performance and confidence typically covary; thus, CPP slope may index signatures of perceptual performance rather than confidence per se. Moreover, perceptual metacognition-including neural correlates-has largely been studied in vision, with few exceptions. Thus, we lack understanding of domain-general neural signatures of perceptual metacognition outside vision. Here we designed a novel auditory pitch identification task and collected behavior with simultaneous 32-channel EEG in healthy adults. Participants saw two tone labels which varied in tonal distance on each trial (e.g., C vs D, C vs F), then heard a single auditory tone; they identified which label was correct and rated confidence. We found that pitch identification confidence varied with tonal distance, but performance, metacognitive sensitivity (trial-by-trial covariation of confidence with accuracy), and reaction time did not. Interestingly, however, while CPP slope covaried with performance and reaction time, it did not significantly covary with confidence. We interpret these results to mean that CPP slope is likely a signature of first-order perceptual processing and not confidence-specific signals or computations in auditory tasks. Our novel pitch identification task offers a valuable method to examine the neural correlates of auditory and domain-general perceptual confidence.

Discrepancies between reported knuckleball spin rates and dynamics

Major League Baseball tracks every pitch of every game and provides the public with access to a significant amount of data for each pitch. This level of data availability is not seen in many other sports and offers substantial opportunities to provide analysis on the sport. Major League Baseball does not provide the raw data but provides refined data. While the algorithms for transforming the raw data are robust, the algorithms are not perfect. This study investigates the specific case of knuckleball pitches and shows that the equations of motion and reported spin rates do not align. This study uses the modified shooting method combined with the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm to determine the trajectories of the pitches based on the provided data and known equations of motion. This study investigates three scenarios: 1) the reported data are correct; 2) the pitches are correctly identified, but the spin rates are incorrect; and 3) the spin rates are correct, but the pitches are incorrectly identified as knuckleballs. We show that the reported data are inconsistent with the equations of motion and that, based on statistical analysis, the pitch identification is likely incorrect.

Timbral cues underlie instrument-specific absolute pitch in expert oboists.

While absolute pitch (AP)-the ability to identify musical pitches without external reference-is rare even in professional musicians, anecdotal evidence and case-report data suggest that some musicians without traditional AP can nonetheless better name notes played on their musical instrument of expertise than notes played on instruments less familiar to them. We have called this gain in AP ability "instrument-specific absolute pitch" (ISAP). Here, we report the results of the first two experiments designed to investigate ISAP in professional oboists. In Experiment 1 (n = 40), superiority for identifying the pitch of oboe over piano tones varied along a continuum, with 37.5% of oboists demonstrating significant ISAP. Variance in accuracy across pitches was higher among ISAP-possessors than ISAP-non-possessors, suggestive of internalized timbral idiosyncrasies, and the use of timbral cues was the second-most commonly reported task strategy. For both timbres, both groups performed more accurately for pitches associated with white than black piano keys. In Experiment 2 (n = 12), oboists with ISAP were less accurate in pitch identification when oboe tones were artificially pitch-shifted. The use of timbral idiosyncrasies thus may constitute a widespread mechanism of ISAP. Motor interference, conversely, did not significantly reduce accuracy. This study offers the first evidence of ISAP among highly trained musicians and that reliance on subtle timbral (or intonational) idiosyncrasies may constitute an underlying mechanism of this ability in expert oboists. This provides a path forward for future studies extending the scientific understanding of ISAP to other instrument types, expertise levels, and musical contexts. More generally, this may deepen knowledge of specialized expertise, representing a range of implicit abilities that are not addressed directly in training, but which may develop through practice of a related skill set.

Auditory temporal resolution and backward masking in musicians with absolute pitch.

Among the many questions regarding the ability to effortlessly name musical notes without a reference, also known as absolute pitch, the neural processes by which this phenomenon operates are still a matter of debate. Although a perceptual subprocess is currently accepted by the literature, the participation of some aspects of auditory processing still needs to be determined. We conducted two experiments to investigate the relationship between absolute pitch and two aspects of auditory temporal processing, namely temporal resolution and backward masking. In the first experiment, musicians were organized into two groups according to the presence of absolute pitch, as determined by a pitch identification test, and compared regarding their performance in the Gaps-in-Noise test, a gap detection task for assessing temporal resolution. Despite the lack of statistically significant difference between the groups, the Gaps-in-Noise test measures were significant predictors of the measures for pitch naming precision, even after controlling for possible confounding variables. In the second experiment, another two groups of musicians with and without absolute pitch were submitted to the backward masking test, with no difference between the groups and no correlation between backward masking and absolute pitch measures. The results from both experiments suggest that only part of temporal processing is involved in absolute pitch, indicating that not all aspects of auditory perception are related to the perceptual subprocess. Possible explanations for these findings include the notable overlap of brain areas involved in both temporal resolution and absolute pitch, which is not present in the case of backward masking, and the relevance of temporal resolution to analyze the temporal fine structure of sound in pitch perception.

Superior pitch identification ability revealed by cortical complexity measures in nonmusicians

Previous research has investigated the brain structure of musicians with absolute pitch (AP); however, pitch identification (PI) ability also exists in nonmusicians. The current study examined the relationship between PI ability and cortical complexity in nonmusicians using fractal dimensionality, a relatively novel way to analyze morphological patterns of cortical organization. Results showed that compared to nonmusicians with average PI ability, those with superior PI exhibited more fractal dimensionality of the left middle and transverse temporal gyrus, right paracentral lobule, superior frontal and precentral gyri, bilateral lateral orbitofrontal, medial orbitofrontal, superior temporal and postcentral gyri as well as less fractal dimensionality of the left precuneus, right superior parietal lobule and insula gyrus, and bilateral supramarginal gyrus. Moreover, the PI score for the superior PI group was positively correlated with fractal dimensionality of the left medial orbitofrontal, superior temporal, and supramarginal gyri; for the average PI group, their PI score was negatively correlated with fractal dimensionality of the left middle temporal, right superior frontal, and right insula gyri. Although the research about fractal dimensionality in young adults has been scant so far, the present study extends our understanding of the neuroanatomical correlates of AP musicians to encompass those with superior PI ability in nonmusicians.

Perception and identification of tones in different timbres: Using pupil diameter to investigate absolute pitch ability

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to effortlessly identify or produce pitches without reference. However, behavioral research has shown that pitch perception and identification in certain timbres are more difficult for AP possessors. In this study, we investigate whether pitch identification and labeling in different timbres (piano and voice) would require different amounts of cognitive resource allocation. We measured accuracy, response time, and pupillary responses of 18 musicians with varying degrees of AP while performing a pitch identification test. We also examined whether behavioral and psychophysiological responses were related to aspects of musical experience, such as the age of onset of musical training, daily hours of practice, and years of musical training. Behavioral results revealed significantly longer response time for vocal tones compared to piano tones. However, there was no difference in accuracy when comparing pitch labeling in piano and vocal tones. On the psychophysiological level, pupillary responses were significantly different across timbre conditions, with larger pupil dilation for vocal tones than piano tones. We also observed an effect of key color (whether the tones corresponded to diatonic or chromatic tones in a C major scale) on pupil dilation, with greater dilation for pitches corresponding to black keys compared to white keys. These findings expand the current knowledge regarding how pitches in different timbres are processed by musicians with varying degrees of AP and open new avenues for the investigation of potentially different cognitive mechanisms involved in the processing of the human voice and musical timbres by AP possessors.

Dynamic resting-state functional connectivity and pitch identification ability in nonmusicians.

Dynamic resting-state functional connectivity and pitch identification ability in nonmusicians.

Superior pitch identification ability is associated with better mental rotation performance

Musicians with absolute pitch ability show better spatial ability, but little is known about whether non-musicians’ pitch identification (PI) ability is associated with their spatial ability. In the present study, a PI test, two mental rotation (MR) tests (Three-Dimensional Mental Rotation [3DMR] and Spatial Relationship [SR]), and eight executive function (EF) tests were administered to a large sample ( N = 525) of Chinese college students who were non-music majors. A subsample with superior PI ability ( n = 42) was identified and compared with a sample with average PI ability matched in age and IQ ( n = 42). Two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) (PI ability x musical training, with gender as a covariate due to a minor difference in matching by gender) revealed that superior PI ability was associated with better performance on MR and various EF tests. Musical training was associated with performance on select visual and EF tests (i.e., visual perception, working memory, and executive attention control), but not with MR performance. Additional ANCOVA showed that PI ability was significantly associated with 3DMR, but not SR, even after scores on EF tests were included as covariates. These results indicate a unique association between PI ability and 3DMR, which helps shed light on the cognitive mechanisms related to PI ability.

Articulatory motor planning and timbral idiosyncrasies as underlying mechanisms of instrument-specific absolute pitch in expert musicians.

The study of musical expertise illustrates how intense training in a specialized domain may instigate development of implicit skills. While absolute pitch, or the ability to identify musical pitches without external reference, is rare even in professional musicians and is understood to have a genetic component, anecdotal evidence and pilot data suggest that some musicians without traditional absolute pitch are nonetheless better able to name notes played on their musical instrument of expertise than notes played on less familiar instruments. We have previously termed this particular gain in absolute pitch identification ability “instrument-specific absolute pitch” (ISAP) and have proposed that this skill is related to learned instrument type-specific timbral and intonational idiosyncrasies and articulatory motor planning activated by the timbre of the instrument. In this Registered Report Protocol, we describe two experiments designed to investigate ISAP in professional oboists. Experiment 1 tests for ISAP ability by comparing oboists’ pitch identification accuracies for notes played on the oboe and on the piano. A subset of the participants from Experiment 1 who demonstrate this ability will be recruited for Experiment 2; the purpose of Experiment 2 is to test hypotheses concerning a mechanistic explanation for ISAP. The outcome of these experiments may provide support for the theory that some individuals have ISAP and that the underlying mechanisms of this ability may rely on the perception of subtle timbral/intonational idiosyncrasies and on articulatory motor planning developed through intensive long-term training. In general, this work will contribute to the understanding of specialized expertise, specifically of implicit abilities and biases that are not addressed directly in training, but that may yet develop through practice of a related skill set.

A Theory of Instrument-Specific Absolute Pitch.

While absolute pitch (AP)—the ability to name musical pitches globally and without reference—is rare in expert musicians, anecdotal evidence suggests that some musicians may better identify pitches played on their primary instrument than pitches played on other instruments. We call this phenomenon “instrument-specific absolute pitch” (ISAP). In this paper we present a theory of ISAP. Specifically, we offer the hypothesis that some expert musicians without global AP may be able to more accurately identify pitches played on their primary instrument(s), and we propose timbral cues and articulatory motor imagery as two underlying mechanisms. Depending on whether informative timbral cues arise from performer- or instrument-specific idiosyncrasies or from timbre-facilitated tonotopic representations, we predict that performance may be enhanced for notes played by oneself, notes played on one’s own personal instrument, and/or notes played on any exemplar of one’s own instrument type. Sounds of one’s primary instrument may moreover activate kinesthetic memory and motor imagery, aiding pitch identification. In order to demonstrate how our theory can be tested, we report the methodology and analysis of two exemplary experiments conducted on two case-study participants who are professional oboists. The aim of the first experiment was to determine whether the oboists demonstrated ISAP ability, while the purpose of the second experiment was to provide a preliminary investigation of the underlying mechanisms. The results of the first experiment revealed that only one of the two oboists showed an advantage for identifying oboe tones over piano tones. For this oboist demonstrating ISAP, the second experiment demonstrated that pitch-naming accuracy decreased and variance around the correct pitch value increased as an effect of transposition and motor interference, but not of instrument or performer. These preliminary data suggest that some musicians possess ISAP while others do not. Timbral cues and motor imagery may both play roles in the acquisition of this ability. Based on our case study findings, we provide methodological considerations and recommendations for future empirical testing of our theory of ISAP.

A Neurophysiological Study of Musical Pitch Identification in Mandarin-Speaking Cochlear Implant Users.

Music perception in cochlear implant (CI) users is far from satisfactory, not only because of the technological limitations of current CI devices but also due to the neurophysiological alterations that generally accompany deafness. Early behavioral studies revealed that similar mechanisms underlie musical and lexical pitch perception in CI-based electric hearing. Although neurophysiological studies of the musical pitch perception of English-speaking CI users are actively ongoing, little such research has been conducted with Mandarin-speaking CI users; as Mandarin is a tonal language, these individuals require pitch information to understand speech. The aim of this work was to study the neurophysiological mechanisms accounting for the musical pitch identification abilities of Mandarin-speaking CI users and normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Behavioral and mismatch negativity (MMN) data were analyzed to examine musical pitch processing performance. Moreover, neurophysiological results from CI users with good and bad pitch discrimination performance (according to the just-noticeable differences (JND) and pitch-direction discrimination (PDD) tasks) were compared to identify cortical responses associated with musical pitch perception differences. The MMN experiment was conducted using a passive oddball paradigm, with musical tone C4 (262 Hz) presented as the standard and tones D4 (294 Hz), E4 (330 Hz), G#4 (415 Hz), and C5 (523 Hz) presented as deviants. CI users demonstrated worse musical pitch discrimination ability than did NH listeners, as reflected by larger JND and PDD thresholds for pitch identification, and significantly increased latencies and reduced amplitudes in MMN responses. Good CI performers had better MMN results than did bad performers. Consistent with findings for English-speaking CI users, the results of this work suggest that MMN is a viable marker of cortical pitch perception in Mandarin-speaking CI users.

A new bionic lateral line system applied to pitch motion parameters perception for autonomous underwater vehicles

Attitude perception for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is a challenging task. Most of existing sensor systems are unable to detect the navigation attitude of AUVs while at the same time to identify the attitude geometric parameters. In order to bridge this research gap, a new artificial lateral line sensor (ALLS) system based on a pressure sensor array is proposed to perform pitch motion perception for AUVs. First of all, a boxfish-like robot was constructed based on the geometrical morphology of a boxfish. The proposed ALLS system was fabricated in the fish robot. Then sensing experiments in the conditions of different pitch motions of the robot were conducted and the experimental measurements were compared with numerical simulation results. The comparison showed consistent mechanisms between the numerical bionic sensor model and the ALLS in perceiving the pitch attitude of the fish robot. Subsequently, pressure measurements of the fish robot were processed by popular machine learning algorithms such as random forest and artificial neural network to establish a vehicle pitch identification model. The analysis results demonstrate that the developed ALLS system is effective in pitch motion parameters recognition, which may provide a new way for self-attitude perception and adjustment of AUVs.

Nonlinear neuroplasticity corresponding to sports experience: A voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional connectivity study.

We aimed to investigate the structural neuroplasticity associated with different levels of sports experience and its effect on the corresponding resting-state functional circuitry. We recruited 18 skilled baseball batters (SB), 19 intermediate baseball batters (IB), and 17 healthy controls (HC), and used magnetic resonance imaging methods to compare their regional gray-matter volume (GMV) and seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). Our results revealed that a quadratic function could better depict intergroup differences in regional GMV than a linear function. In particular, the IB showed lower or higher regional GMV than the other two groups. The difference in GMV in the supplementary motor area and areas belonging to the ventral stream, including the middle temporal gyrus and middle temporal pole, might be possibly related to baseball-specific motor and perceptual experience, such as inhibitory action control and pitch identification. On the other hand, the stronger rsFC seeded from the right middle temporal pole to the default mode network, particularly in the precuneus, in the SB and IB relative to that in the HC might be possibly associated with the theory of mind, such as deciding whether to swing or not against the pitcher by detecting the spatial information of pitches. In conclusion, our three-group design enabled the capture of the unique and transient changes that occur during the intermediate phase of expertise development. Our findings indicated that structural and functional brain changes do not necessarily linearly increase as a function of experience as previously suggested by the literature.

The relative importance of perceptual and memory sampling processes in determining the time course of absolute identification.

In absolute identification, the extended generalized context model (EGCM; Kent & Lamberts, 2005, 2016) proposes that perceptual processing determines systematic response time (RT) variability; all other models of RT emphasize response selection processes. In the EGCM-RT the bow effect in RTs (longer responses for stimuli in the middle of the range) occurs because these middle stimuli are less isolated, and as perceptual information is accumulated, the evidence supporting a correct response grows more slowly than for stimuli at the ends of the range. More perceptual information is therefore accumulated in order to increase certainty in response for middle stimuli, lengthening RT. According to the model reducing perceptual sampling time should reduce the size of the bow effect in RT. We tested this hypothesis in 2 pitch identification experiments. Experiment 1 found no effect of stimulus duration on the size of the RT bow. Experiment 2 used multiple short stimulus durations as well as manipulating set size and stimulus spacing. Contrary to EGCM-RT predictions, the bow effect on RTs was large for even very short durations. A new version of the EGCM-RT could only capture this, alongside the effect of stimulus duration on accuracy, by including both a perceptual and a memory sampling process. A modified version of the selective attention, mapping, and ballistic accumulator model (Brown, Marley, Donkin, & Heathcote, 2008) could also capture the data, by assuming psychophysical noise diminishes with increased exposure duration. This modeling suggests systematic variability in RT in absolute identification is largely determined by memory sampling and response selection processes. (PsycINFO Database Record

A concise and effectual method for neutral pitch identification in stuttered speech

AbstractResearchers have studied that human-computer interactions (HCIs) can be more effective only when machines understand the emotions conveyed in speech. Speech emotion recognition has seen growing interest in research due to its usefulness in different applications. Building a neutral speech model becomes an important and challenging task as it can help in identifying different emotions from stuttered speech. This paper suggests two different approaches for identifying neutral pitch from stuttered speech. The implementation has proved through its accuracy the best model that can be adopted for neutral speech pitch identification.

Neural correlates of absolute pitch: A review

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 processes. Diffusion tensor imaging studies provide evidence for a neural pathway between the left posterior DLFC and the left PT, which establishes retrieval and manipulation of verbal-tonal associations. Compared to AP musicians, quasi-AP (QAP) musicians have an extensive right hemisphere network implicated in auditory working memory and show the bilateral structural characteristics of PT morphometry. Future research should confirm the definition of PT boundary and the role of (bi)lateralization of PT in AP ability, develop a standard AP test, identify genetic bases of AP, and describe relations between AP, tonal languages, and associated neural functions and structures among non-musicians with AP ability.

Absolute pitch in Costa Rica: Distribution of pitch identification ability and implications for its genetic basis.

Absolute pitch is the unusual ability to recognize a pitch without an external reference. The current view is that both environmental and genetic factors are involved in the acquisition of the trait. In the present study, 127 adult musicians were subjected to a musical tone identification test. Subjects were university music students and volunteers who responded to a newspaper article. The test consisted of the identification of 40 piano and 40 pure tones. Subjects were classified in three categories according to their pitch naming ability: absolute pitch (AP), high accuracy of tone identification (HA), and non-absolute pitch (non-AP). Both the percentage of correct responses and the mean absolute deviation showed a statistically significant variation between categories. A very clear pattern of higher accuracy for white than for black key notes was observed for the HA and the non-AP groups. Meanwhile, the AP group had an almost perfect pitch naming accuracy for both kinds of tones. Each category presented a very different pattern of deviation around the correct response. The age at the beginning of musical training did not differ between categories. The distribution of pitch identification ability in this study suggests a complex inheritance of the trait.

On Older Listeners' Ability to Perceive Dynamic Pitch.

Natural speech comes with variation in pitch, which serves as an important cue for speech recognition. The present study investigated older listeners' dynamic pitch perception with a focus on interindividual variability. In particular, we asked whether some of the older listeners' inability to perceive dynamic pitch stems from the higher susceptibility to the interference from formant changes. A total of 22 older listeners and 21 younger controls with at least near-typical hearing were tested on dynamic pitch identification and discrimination tasks using synthetic monophthong and diphthong vowels. The older listeners' ability to detect changes in pitch varied substantially, even when musical and linguistic experiences were controlled. The influence of formant patterns on dynamic pitch perception was evident in both groups of listeners. Overall, strong pitch contours (i.e., more dynamic) were perceived better than weak pitch contours (i.e., more monotonic), particularly with rising pitch patterns. The findings are in accordance with the literature demonstrating some older individuals' difficulty perceiving dynamic pitch cues in speech. Moreover, they suggest that this problem may be prominent when the dynamic pitch is carried by natural speech and when the pitch contour is not strong.

Imperfect pitch: Gabor's uncertainty principle and the pitch of extremely brief sounds.

How brief must a sound be before its pitch is no longer perceived? The uncertainty tradeoff between temporal and spectral resolution (Gabor's principle) limits the minimum duration required for accurate pitch identification or discrimination. Prior studies have reported that pitch can be extracted from sinusoidal pulses as brief as half a cycle. This finding has been used in a number of classic papers to develop models of pitch encoding. We have found that phase randomization, which eliminates timbre confounds, degrades this ability to chance, raising serious concerns over the foundation on which classic pitch models have been built. The current study investigated whether subthreshold pitch cues may still exist in partial-cycle pulses revealed through statistical integration in a time series containing multiple pulses. To this end, we measured frequency-discrimination thresholds in a two-interval forced-choice task for trains of partial-cycle random-phase tone pulses. We found that residual pitch cues exist in these pulses but discriminating them requires an order of magnitude (ten times) larger frequency difference than that reported previously, necessitating a re-evaluation of pitch models built on earlier findings. We also found that as pulse duration is decreased to less than two cycles its pitch becomes biased toward higher frequencies, consistent with predictions of an auto-correlation model of pitch extraction.

Resting-state functional connectivity and pitch identification ability in non-musicians.

Previous studies have used task-related fMRI to investigate the neural basis of pitch identification (PI), but no study has examined the associations between resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and PI ability. Using a large sample of Chinese non-musicians (N = 320, with 56 having prior musical training), the current study examined the associations among musical training, PI ability, and RSFC. Results showed that musical training was associated with increased RSFC within the networks for multiple cognitive functions (such as vision, phonology, semantics, auditory encoding, and executive functions). PI ability was associated with RSFC with regions for perceptual and auditory encoding for participants with musical training, and with RSFC with regions for short-term memory, semantics, and phonology for participants without musical training.