Visualisation of different harmonisations varying in mode, consonance & dissonance

Visual associations with auditory stimuli have been the subject of numerous studies. Colour, shape, size, and several other parameters have been linked to musical elements like timbre and pitch. In this paper we aim to examine the relationship between harmonisations with varying degrees of dissonance and visual roughness. Based on past research in which high sensory dissonance was associated with angular shapes, we argued that non-tonal and highly dissonant harmonisations will be associated with angular and rough images, while more consonant stimuli will be associated with images of low visual roughness. A fixed melody was harmonised in 7 different styles, including highly tonal, non-tonal, and random variations. Through a listening task, musically trained participants rated the stimuli in terms of enjoyment, familiarity, and matched them to images of variable roughness. The overall consonance of the stimuli was calculated using two distinct models (Wang et al., 2013; Harrison & Pearce, 2020) and a variant of the aggregate dyadic consonance index (Huron, 1994). Our results demonstrate that dissonance, as calculated by all models, was highly correlated with visual roughness, and enjoyment and familiarity followed expected patterns compared to tonal and non-tonal stimuli. In addition to sensory dissonance, however, it appears that other factors, such as the typicality of chord progressions and the sense of tonality may also influence this cross-modal interaction.

Can the Lateralized Readiness Potential Detect Suppressed Manual Responses to Pure Tones?

Willfully not responding to auditory stimuli hampers accurate behavioral measurements. An objective measure of covert manual suppression recorded during response tasks may be useful to assess the veracity of responses to stimuli.To investigate whether the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), an electrophysiological measure of corticomotor response and suppression, may be of use in determining when participants hear but do not respond to pure tones.Within-subject repeated measures with a Go–NoGo paradigm.Five males and five females (mean age = 38.8 years, standard deviation = 8.8) underwent electrophysiology testing. All had normal hearing, except one.Participants were tested in a condition where they consistently responded to tonal stimuli, and in a condition where intensity cued whether they should respond or not. Scalp-recorded cortical potentials and behavioral responses were recorded, along with a question that probed the perceived effort required to suppress responses to the stimuli.Electrophysiology data were processed with independent component analysis and epoch-based artifact rejection. Averaged group and individual LRPs were calculated.Group averaged waveforms show that suppressed responses, cued by NoGo stimuli, diverge positively at approximately 300 msec poststimulus, when compared with performed (Go) responses. LRPs were comparable when Go responses were recorded in a separate condition in which participants responded to all stimuli, and when Go and NoGo trials were included in the same condition. The LRP was not observed in one participant.Subsequent to further investigation, the LRP may prove suitable in assessing the suppression of responses to audiometric stimuli, and, thereby, useful in cases where functional hearing loss is suspected.

Pitch and Time Processing in Speech and Tones: The Effects of Musical Training and Attention

Purpose Musical training is often linked to enhanced auditory discrimination, but the relative roles of pitch and time in music and speech are unclear. Moreover, it is unclear whether pitch and time processing are correlated across individuals and how they may be affected by attention. This study aimed to examine pitch and time processing in speech and tone sequences, taking musical training and attention into account. Method Musicians (16) and nonmusicians (16) were asked to detect pitch or timing changes in speech and tone sequences and make a binary response. In some conditions, the participants were focused on 1 aspect of the stimulus (directed attention), and in others, they had to pay attention to all aspects at once (divided attention). Results As expected, musicians performed better overall. Performance scores on pitch and time tasks were correlated, as were performance scores for speech and tonal stimuli, but most markedly in musicians. All participants performed better on the directed versus divided attention task, but again, musicians performed better than nonmusicians. Conclusion In general, this experiment shows that individuals with a better sense of pitch discrimination also have a better sense of timing discrimination in the auditory domain. In addition, although musicians perform better overall, these results do not support the idea that musicians have an added advantage for divided attention tasks. These findings serve to better understand how musical training and attention affect pitch and time processing in the context of speech and tones and may have applications in special populations. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5895997

Influencia de un entrenamiento en discriminación de estímulos tonales en la conciencia fonológica de niños preescolares. Estudio piloto / Influence of tonal stimuli discrimination in the phonologic awareness of preschool children. Pilot study

Los problemas de lectura están fuertemente asociados con el desarrollo del procesamiento fonológico y en particular con la conciencia fonológica. En el procesamiento fonológico esta involucrado el procesamiento de propiedades tonales y temporales de estímulos auditivos de carácter verbal y no-verbal. Este trabajo explora, por medio de un muestreo intencional, los efectos de un entrenamiento en discriminación de propiedades tonales de estímulos musicales en la conciencia fonológica de 28 niños de tercer grado de preescolar. Se aplicó una Batería de Conciencia Fonológica y la prueba Primary Measures of Music Audiation antes y después del entrenamiento. Posterior a la primera aplicación de los instrumentos, los participantes fueron asignados azarosamente a dos grupos: control y experimental. Los resultados revelaron que el grupo que recibió el entrenamiento tuvo mejores puntuaciones de manera significativa solo en dos tareas de la conciencia fonológica: identificación de sílaba inicial e identificación de la rima, sugiriendo que los efectos del entrenamiento tonal no son contundentes en la discriminación tonal de estímulos musicales ni en la conciencia fonológica. Relacionando estos resultados con lo reportado en otras investigaciones, se considera incluir otras actividades el entrenamiento.