Temporal Semiotic Units as Minimal Meaningful Units in Music? An Electrophysiological Approach

Aline Frey; Cééline Marie; Lucie Prod'Homme; Martine Timsit-Berthier; Daniele Schöön; Mireille Besson

doi:10.1525/mp.2009.26.3.247

Temporal Semiotic Units as Minimal Meaningful Units in Music? An Electrophysiological Approach

Music Perception An Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.1525/mp.2009.26.3.247 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 247-256 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Aline Frey ◽

Cééline Marie ◽

Lucie Prod'Homme ◽

Martine Timsit-Berthier ◽

Daniele Schöön ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Significance ◽

Environmental Sounds ◽

Conceptual Priming

THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHER conceptual priming occurs between successively presented short musical pieces called Temporal Semantic Units (TSUs). Behavioral and ERP data were recorded while participants, experts and nonexperts in TSUs, were listening to pairs of TSUs and were asked to determine whether the target TSU evoked the same or a different concept than the prime TSU. Target TSUs were either congruous (i.e., they developed the same musical concept as the prime TSUs) or incongruous (i.e., they started as congruous TSUs but shifted midstream into a different concept). Results showed that, whereas P3a components were elicited in both groups by the shifting into incongruous TSUs, thereby reflecting an automatic shift of attention when the changes occurred, P3b components were elicited in experts and N400-like components were found in nonexperts. The functional significance of these results is discussed in regard of previous results with environmental sounds.

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Perceptual and Conceptual Priming of Environmental Sounds

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2011.21623 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (11) ◽

pp. 3241-3253 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Annett Schirmer ◽

Yong Hao Soh ◽

Trevor B. Penney ◽

Lonce Wyse

Keyword(s):

Spectral Composition ◽

Linguistic Context ◽

Environmental Sounds ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Conceptual Priming ◽

Target Sound ◽

Conceptual Processing ◽

Sonic Environment ◽

Prime Target ◽

Conceptual Relationship

It is still unknown whether sonic environments influence the processing of individual sounds in a similar way as discourse or sentence context influences the processing of individual words. One obstacle to answering this question has been the failure to dissociate perceptual (i.e., how similar are sonic environment and target sound?) and conceptual (i.e., how related are sonic environment and target?) priming effects. In this study, we dissociate these effects by creating prime–target pairs with a purely perceptual or both a perceptual and conceptual relationship. Perceptual prime–target pairs were derived from perceptual–conceptual pairs (i.e., meaningful environmental sounds) by shuffling the spectral composition of primes and targets so as to preserve their perceptual relationship while making them unrecognizable. Hearing both original and shuffled targets elicited a more positive N1/P2 complex in the ERP when targets were related to a preceding prime as compared with unrelated. Only related original targets reduced the N400 amplitude. Related shuffled targets tended to decrease the amplitude of a late temporo-parietal positivity. Taken together, these effects indicate that sonic environments influence first the perceptual and then the conceptual processing of individual sounds. Moreover, the influence on conceptual processing is comparable to the influence linguistic context has on the processing of individual words.

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Conceptual Priming With Pictures and Environmental Sounds

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e633262013-534 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Yongju Kim ◽

Anne M. Porter ◽

Kathryn Weatherford ◽

Paula Goolkasian

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sounds ◽

Conceptual Priming

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Is conceptual priming for environmental sounds obligatory?

International Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2007.03.003 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

pp. 162-166 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

G ORGS ◽

K LANGE ◽

J DOMBROWSKI ◽

M HEIL

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sounds ◽

Conceptual Priming

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Conceptual priming with pictures and environmental sounds

Acta Psychologica ◽

10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.12.006 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 146 ◽

pp. 73-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Yongju Kim ◽

Anne Marie Porter ◽

Paula Goolkasian

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sounds ◽

Conceptual Priming

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Conceptual priming for environmental sounds and words: An ERP study

Brain and Cognition ◽

10.1016/j.bandc.2006.05.003 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 267-272 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Guido Orgs ◽

Kathrin Lange ◽

Jan-Henryk Dombrowski ◽

Martin Heil

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sounds ◽

Conceptual Priming

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Functional significance of preserved color patterns of mollusks from the Gosport Sand (Eocene) of Alabama

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1017/s0022336000058911 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 62 (01) ◽

pp. 83-87 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Patricia H. Kelley ◽

Charles T. Swann

Keyword(s):

Functional Morphology ◽

Functional Significance ◽

Intraspecific Variability ◽

Color Pattern ◽

Color Patterns ◽

Historical Factors ◽

Life Mode ◽

Molluscan Fauna ◽

Excellent Preservation ◽

Architectural Constraints

The excellent preservation of the molluscan fauna from the Gosport Sand (Eocene) at Little Stave Creek, Alabama, has made it possible to describe the preserved color patterns of 15 species. In this study the functional significance of these color patterns is tested in the context of the current adaptationist controversy. The pigment of the color pattern is thought to be a result of metabolic waste disposal. Therefore, the presence of the pigment is functional, although the patterns formed by the pigment may or may not have been adaptive. In this investigation the criteria proposed by Seilacher (1972) for testing the functionality of color patterns were applied to the Gosport fauna and the results compared with life mode as interpreted from knowledge of extant relatives and functional morphology. Using Seilacher's criteria of little ontogenetic and intraspecific variability, the color patterns appear to have been functional. However, the functional morphology studies indicate an infaunal life mode which would preclude functional color patterns. Particular color patterns are instead interpreted to be the result of historical factors, such as multiple adaptive peaks or random fixation of alleles, or of architectural constraints including possibly pleiotropy or allometry. The low variability of color patterns, which was noted within species and genera, suggests that color patterns may also serve a useful taxonomic purpose.

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Complex Vesicles, Microtubules, and Cytoplasmic Filaments in the Endothelial Cells of Normal Dog Aorta

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100100603 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 26 ◽

pp. 172-173

Author(s):

C. N. Sun ◽

J. J. Ghidoni

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Endothelial Cells ◽

Cross Sections ◽

Functional Significance ◽

Tubular Structures ◽

Aldehyde Fixation ◽

Cytoplasmic Filaments

Endothelial cells in longitudinal and cross sections of aortas from 3 randomly selected “normal” mongrel dogs were studied by electron microscopy. Segments of aorta were distended with cold cacodylate buffered 5% glutaraldehyde for 10 minutes prior to being cut into small, well oriented tissue blocks. After an additional 1-1/2 hour period in glutaraldehyde, the tissue blocks were well rinsed in buffer and post-fixed in OsO4. After dehydration they were embedded in a mixture of Maraglas, D.E.R. 732, and DDSA.Aldehyde fixation preserves the filamentous and tubular structures (300 Å and less) for adequate demonstration and study. The functional significance of filaments and microtubules has been recently discussed by Buckley and Porter; the precise roles of these cytoplasmic components remains problematic. Endothelial cells in canine aortas contained an abundance of both types of structures.

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