The Role of Musical Experience in Hemispheric Lateralization of Global and Local Auditory Processing

Perception ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 956-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Black ◽  
Jennifer L. Stevenson ◽  
Joel P. Bish
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Hemispheric Lateralization ◽  
Precedence Effect ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
P300 Latency ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Auditory Tasks ◽  
Global And Local

The global precedence effect is a phenomenon in which global aspects of visual and auditory stimuli are processed before local aspects. Individuals with musical experience perform better on all aspects of auditory tasks compared with individuals with less musical experience. The hemispheric lateralization of this auditory processing is less well-defined. The present study aimed to replicate the global precedence effect with auditory stimuli and to explore the lateralization of global and local auditory processing in individuals with differing levels of musical experience. A total of 38 college students completed an auditory-directed attention task while electroencephalography was recorded. Individuals with low musical experience responded significantly faster and more accurately in global trials than in local trials regardless of condition, and significantly faster and more accurately when pitches traveled in the same direction (compatible condition) than when pitches traveled in two different directions (incompatible condition) consistent with a global precedence effect. In contrast, individuals with high musical experience showed less of a global precedence effect with regards to accuracy, but not in terms of reaction time, suggesting an increased ability to overcome global bias. Further, a difference in P300 latency between hemispheres was observed. These findings provide a preliminary neurological framework for auditory processing of individuals with differing degrees of musical experience.

On the Different Processing of Wholes and Parts: A Psychophysiological Analysis

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 687-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihui Han ◽  
Silu Fan ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Yan Zhuo
Keyword(s):  
Interference Effect ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Precedence Effect ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Compound Stimuli ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
Local Levels

The global precedence hypothesis (Navon, 1977) assumes that the processing of the global level of a hierarchical pattern precedes that of the local level. To explore further the nature of global and local processing of compound stimuli, we recorded the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) associated with ident@ing the global and local levels of nonlinguistic compound stimuli in a selective attention task. Wile subjects' behavioral responses were similar to those observed by Navon (1977), the analyses of ERP data showed that identification of the local level elicited longer N2 and P3 peak latencies with enhanced N2 and decreased P3 amplitudes relative to the identification of the global level. The inconsistency between the global and local levels made N2 and P3 amplitudes more negative with longer peak latencies. This interference effect on N2 and P3 amplitude and P3 latency was stronger on the local level than on the global level. The modulation of N2 by the consistency of the global and local levels observed in this and the previous (Heinze, Muente, et al., 1994) study suggests that the interference effect may be mediated by the early perceptual processing. Moreover, we found that the amplitude of an early posterior P1 component was modulated by attention to the global and local levels, being larger to the local target than to the global one. This PI effect gives no support to the notion that the variation of attentional spotlight determines the global precedence effect.

scholarly journals The Influence of Inhibition of Return and Level-Priming on the Global Precedence Effect

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Yan Wu ◽  
Qi Li ◽  
Yuanzi Liu
Keyword(s):  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Local Features ◽  
Precedence Effect ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
Global Features ◽  
Hierarchical Processing ◽  
Inhibition Effect ◽  
Hierarchical Stimuli ◽  
Priming Paradigm ◽  
Global And Local

The aim of the reported experiment was to investigate the effects of inhibition of return (IOR) and level-priming on the global precedence effect (GPE). The classical hierarchical stimuli combined with IOR and the level-priming paradigm were used. The participants selectively attended to the global or local features of compound numerals. The results showed that IOR inhibited the response to the global and local features; moreover, the inhibition effect on the perception of the global features was stronger than that of the local features in the stage of inhibitory processing, resulting in the disappearance of GPE. However, level-priming promoted the response to global and local features, and the promotion effect was stronger on local features, leading to the disappearance of GPE as well. These findings suggested that hierarchical processing was affected by IOR and level-priming, which were correlated with selective attention. Thus, it indicated that global precedence could be involved in attentional mechanisms.

Reversal of Hemispheric Asymmetry on Auditory Tasks in Children Who Are Poor Listeners

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 059-071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca I. Estes ◽  
James Jerger ◽  
Gary Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Hemispheric Lateralization ◽  
Midsagittal Plane ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Hemispheric Activation ◽  
Auditory Tasks ◽  
Age Range

We examined hemispheric activation patterns during auditory and visual processing in two groups of children: 13 boys in the age range from 9 to 12 years rated by their parents and teachers as poor listeners and 11 boys in the same age range rated as normal listeners. Three tasks were employed: auditory gap detection, detection of auditory movement, and a control task involving visuospatial discrimination. Electrical activity was recorded from 30 scalp electrodes as participants responded to target stimuli in an event-related potential paradigm. In the visual task, hemispheric activation was relatively symmetric around the midsagittal plane in both groups. In the two auditory tasks, however, hemispheric activation patterns differed significantly between groups. In the normal-listener group, activation was asymmetric to the right hemisphere. In the poor-listener group, however, activation tended toward asymmetry, favoring the left hemisphere. These results suggest that abnormalities in hemispheric lateralization of function may underlie the auditory processing problems of at least some children described as poor listeners.

scholarly journals Forest Before Trees: Letter Stimulus and Sex Modulate Global Precedence in Visual Perception

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Álvarez-San Millán ◽  
Jaime Iglesias ◽  
Anahí Gutkin ◽  
Ela I. Olivares
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Hormonal Contraceptive ◽  
Precedence Effect ◽  
Congruent Condition ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
Processing Style ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
Main Effects

The global precedence effect (GPE), originally referring to processing hierarchical visual stimuli composed of letters, is characterised by both global advantage and global interference. We present herein a study of how this effect is modulated by the variables letter and sex. The Navon task, using the letters “H” and “S,” was administered to 78 males and 168 females (69 follicular women, 52 luteal women, and 47 hormonal contraceptive users). No interaction occurred between the letter and sex variables, but significant main effects arose from each of these. Reaction times (RTs) revealed that the letter “H” was identified more rapidly in the congruent condition both in the global and the local task, and the letter “S” in the incongruent condition for the local task. Also, although RTs showed a GPE in both males and females, males displayed shorter reaction times in both global and local tasks. Furthermore, luteal women showed higher d’ index (discrimination sensitivity) in the congruent condition for the local task than both follicular women and hormonal contraceptive users, as well as longer exploration time of the irrelevant level during the global task than males. We conclude that, according to the linear periodicity law, the GPE is enhanced for compound letters with straight vs. curved strokes, whereas it is stronger in males than in females. Relevantly, luteal phase of the menstrual cycle seems to tilt women to rely on finer grained information, thus exhibiting an analytical processing style in global/local visual processing.

scholarly journals Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Robert Slevc
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Musical Ability ◽  
Switching Performance ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Auditory Tasks ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Auditory Processes ◽  
The Relationship

A growing body of research suggests that musical experience and ability are related to a variety of cognitive abilities, including executive functioning (EF). However, it is not yet clear if these relationships are limited to specific components of EF, limited to auditory tasks, or reflect very general cognitive advantages. This study investigated the existence and generality of the relationship between musical ability and EFs by evaluating the musical experience and ability of a large group of participants and investigating whether this predicts individual differences on three different components of EF – inhibition, updating, and switching – in both auditory and visual modalities. Musical ability predicted better performance on both auditory and visual updating tasks, even when controlling for a variety of potential confounds (age, handedness, bilingualism, and socio-economic status). However, musical ability was not clearly related to inhibitory control and was unrelated to switching performance. These data thus show that cognitive advantages associated with musical ability are not limited to auditory processes, but are limited to specific aspects of EF. This supports a process-specific (but modality-general) relationship between musical ability and non-musical aspects of cognition.

How Many Trees Does it Take to Make a Forest?

Perception ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Navon
Keyword(s):  
Local Features ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
The Times ◽  
Global And Local

In order to study the relative perceptual availability of global and local features in very sparse patterns, subjects were asked to make ‘same’/‘different’ judgments on pairs of geometrical figures and the times needed to detect global and local differences were compared. With triangular patterns a global precedence was found which could be attributed to size differences. With rectangular patterns global precedence was larger, not accounted for by size differences, and indifferent both to the number of elements and to their spacing. Thus it was demonstrated that global precedence may hold for patterns with as few as four elements. Patterns with smooth edges could be compared much more quickly than patterns with serrated eges. It is proposed that configurational properties of some of the patterns interfered with the encoding of their global structures or with comparing them. It is argued that the results support a principle of global addressability which postulates that visual schemata are mainly addressed through their global constituents.

scholarly journals Auditory Temporal Order Discrimination and Backward Recognition Masking in Adults With Dyslexia

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1352-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne M. Griffiths ◽  
Nicholas I. Hill ◽  
Peter J. Bailey ◽  
Margaret J. Snowling
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Short Isis ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Significant Group Difference ◽  
Auditory Thresholds ◽  
Small Subgroup ◽  
Auditory Tasks ◽  
And Control

The ability of 20 adult dyslexic readers to extract frequency information from successive tone pairs was compared with that of IQ-matched controls using temporal order discrimination and auditory backward recognition masking (ABRM) tasks. In both paradigms, the interstimulus interval (ISI) between tones in a pair was either short (20 ms) or long (200 ms). Temporal order discrimination was better for both groups of listeners at long than at short ISIs, but no group differences in performance were observed at either ISI. Performance on the ABRM task was also better at long than at short ISIs and was influenced by variability in masker frequency and by the spectral proximity of target and masker. The only significant group difference was found in one condition of the ABRM task when the target-masker interval was 200 ms, but this difference was not reliable when the measure was of optimal performance. Moderate correlations were observed between auditory thresholds and phonological skill for the sample as a whole and within the dyslexic and control groups. However, although a small subgroup of dyslexic listeners with poor phonology was characterized by elevated thresholds across the auditory tasks, evidence for an association between auditory and phonological processing skills was weakened by the finding of a subgroup of control listeners with poor auditory processing and normal phonological processing skills.

scholarly journals Spatial Attention Evokes Similar Activation Patterns for Visual and Auditory Stimuli

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
David V. Smith ◽  
Ben Davis ◽  
Kathy Niu ◽  
Eric W. Healy ◽  
Leonardo Bonilha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Central Target ◽  
Neuroimaging Study ◽  
Auditory Tasks ◽  
Selection Of

Neuroimaging studies suggest that a fronto-parietal network is activated when we expect visual information to appear at a specific spatial location. Here we examined whether a similar network is involved for auditory stimuli. We used sparse fMRI to infer brain activation while participants performed analogous visual and auditory tasks. On some trials, participants were asked to discriminate the elevation of a peripheral target. On other trials, participants made a nonspatial judgment. We contrasted trials where the participants expected a peripheral spatial target to those where they were cued to expect a central target. Crucially, our statistical analyses were based on trials where stimuli were anticipated but not presented, allowing us to directly infer perceptual orienting independent of perceptual processing. This is the first neuroimaging study to use an orthogonal-cuing paradigm (with cues predicting azimuth and responses involving elevation discrimination). This aspect of our paradigm is important, as behavioral cueing effects in audition are classically only observed when participants are asked to make spatial judgments. We observed similar fronto-parietal activation for both vision and audition. In a second experiment that controlled for stimulus properties and task difficulty, participants made spatial and temporal discriminations about musical instruments. We found that the pattern of brain activation for spatial selection of auditory stimuli was remarkably similar to what we found in our first experiment. Collectively, these results suggest that the neural mechanisms supporting spatial attention are largely similar across both visual and auditory modalities.

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