Pitch discrimination interference: The role of ear of entry and of octave similarity

Abstract Previous studies have shown that music can have a positive impact on phonological awareness and on foreign language acquisition. The present research investigates specifically the role of pitch discrimination ability in native and foreign language spelling performance. Two groups of elementary school children were selected based on their pitch discrimination abilities (high and low). Their spelling performance in their native and a foreign (fictional) language was assessed. The results indicate that pitch discrimination ability can be linked to spelling ability in both the native and a foreign language. They also suggest that studying a musical instrument might predict enhanced spelling performance ability

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Implicit temporal predictability biases slow oscillatory phase in auditory cortex and enhances pitch discrimination sensitivity

10.1101/410274 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Sophie K. Herbst ◽

Jonas Obleser

Keyword(s):

Target Tone ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Neural Oscillations ◽

Phase Reset ◽

Standard Tone ◽

Input Structure ◽

Oscillatory Phase ◽

Temporal Predictability ◽

Delta Oscillations

AbstractCan human listeners use strictly implicit temporal contingencies in auditory input to form temporal predictions, and if so, how are these predictions represented endogenously? To assess this question, we implicitly manipulated foreperiods in an auditory pitch discrimination task. Unbeknownst to participants, the pitch of the standard tone could either be deterministically predictive of the onset of the target tone, or convey no predictive information. Both conditions were presented interleaved in one stream, and separated by variable inter-stimulus intervals such that there was no dominant stimulus rhythm throughout. Even though participants were unaware of the implicit temporal contingencies, pitch discrimination sensitivity (i.e. the slope of the psychometric function) increased when the onset of the target tone was predictable in time (N = 49). Concurrently recorded EEG data (N = 24) revealed that standard tones which initiated temporal predictions evoked a more negative N1 component than non-predictive standards, and were followed by an increase in delta power during the foreperiod. Furthermore, the phase angle of delta oscillations (1–3Hz) evoked by the standard tone predicted pitch discrimination sensitivity at the target tone (1.75 s later on average), which suggests that temporal predictions can be initiated by an optimized delta phase reset. In sum, we show that auditory perception benefits from implicit temporal contingencies, and provide evidence for a role of slow neural oscillations in the endogenous representation of temporal predictions, in absence of exogenously driven entrainment to rhythmic input.Significance StatementTemporal contingencies are ubiquitous in sensory environments, especially in the auditory domain, and have been shown to facilitate perception and action. Yet, how these contingencies in exogenous inputs are transformed into an endogenous representation of temporal predictions is not known. Here, we implicitly induced temporal predictability in the absence of a rhythmic input structure, that is without exogenously driven entrainment of neural oscillations. Our results show that even implicit and non-rhythmic temporal predictions are extracted and used by human observers, underlining the role of timing in sensory processing. Furthermore, our EEG results point towards an instrumental role of delta oscillations in initiating temporal predictions by an optimized phase reset in response to a temporally predictive cue.

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Role of Pitch Memory in Pitch Matching and Pitch Discrimination

ASHA Leader ◽

10.1044/leader.ftr1.10102005.4 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 4-4

Author(s):

Robert E. Moore ◽

Casie Keaton ◽

Christopher Watts

Keyword(s):

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Pitch Matching

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The Role of Pitch Memory in Pitch Discrimination and Pitch Matching

Journal of Voice ◽

10.1016/j.jvoice.2006.04.004 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 21 (5) ◽

pp. 560-567 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Robert E. Moore ◽

Casie Keaton ◽

Christopher Watts

Keyword(s):

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Pitch Matching

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The role of timbre in pitch matching abilities and pitch discrimination abilities with complex tones

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4809312 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 115 (5) ◽

pp. 2390-2390

Author(s):

Robert E. Moore ◽

Christopher R. Watts ◽

Fawen Zhang

Keyword(s):

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Pitch Matching ◽

Complex Tones

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Poorer auditory sensitivity is related to stronger visual enhancement of the human auditory mismatch negativity (MMNm)

10.1101/604165 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Cecilie Møller ◽

Andreas Højlund ◽

Klaus B. Bærentsen ◽

Niels Chr. Hansen ◽

Joshua C. Skewes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mismatch Negativity ◽

Visual Information ◽

Multisensory Processing ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Oddball Paradigm ◽

Visual Enhancement ◽

Complementary Role ◽

Multisensory Information

AbstractMultisensory processing facilitates perception of our everyday environment and becomes particularly important when sensory information is degraded or close to the discrimination threshold. Here, we used magnetoencephalography and an audiovisual oddball paradigm to assess the complementary role of visual information in subtle pitch discrimination at the neural level of participants with varying levels of pitch discrimination abilities, i.e., musicians and nonmusicians. The amplitude of the auditory mismatch negativity (MMNm) served as an index of sensitivity. The gain in amplitude resulting from compatible audiovisual information was larger in participants whose MMNm amplitude was smaller in the condition deviating only in the auditory dimension, in accordance with the multisensory principle of inverse effectiveness. These findings show that discrimination of even a sensory-specific feature as pitch is facilitated by multisensory information at a pre-attentive level, and they highlight the importance of considering inter-individual differences in uni-sensory abilities when assessing multisensory processing.

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