Section of Biomagnetism, Department of Neurology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Section of Biomagnetism, Department of Neurology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2021 Jan 15;225:117501. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117501. Epub 2020 Oct 24.
Pitch is an important perceptual feature; however, it is poorly understood how its cortical correlates are shaped by absolute vs relative fundamental frequency (f), and by neural adaptation. In this study, we assessed transient and sustained auditory evoked fields (AEFs) at the onset, progression, and offset of short pitch height sequences, taking into account the listener's musicality. We show that neuromagnetic activity reflects absolute f at pitch onset and offset, and relative f at transitions within pitch sequences; further, sequences with fixed f lead to larger response suppression than sequences with variable f contour, and to enhanced offset activity. Musical listeners exhibit stronger f-related AEFs and larger differences between their responses to fixed vs variable sequences, both within sequences and at pitch offset. The results resemble prominent psychoacoustic phenomena in the perception of pitch contours; moreover, they suggest a strong influence of adaptive mechanisms on cortical pitch processing which, in turn, might be modulated by a listener's musical expertise.
音高是一个重要的感知特征；然而，其皮质相关物如何受到绝对频率与相对频率以及神经适应的影响还知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们评估了短音高序列起始、进展和结束时的瞬态和持续听觉诱发场（AEF），并考虑了听众的音乐性。我们表明，神经磁活动在音高起始和结束时反映了绝对频率，在音高序列内的转调时反映了相对频率；此外，具有固定频率的序列会导致比具有可变频率轮廓的序列更大的反应抑制，并且会增强结束时的活动。音乐听众表现出更强的与 f 相关的 AEF，以及在固定序列和可变序列之间的反应差异更大，无论是在序列内还是在音高结束时。这些结果类似于音高轮廓感知中的显著心理声学现象；此外，它们表明自适应机制对皮质音高处理有很强的影响，而这反过来又可能受到听众音乐专业知识的调节。
