Laterality effects for musical structure processing: a dichotic listening study.
OBJECTIVE
Our study investigated hemispheric lateralization for musical structure processing using a dichotic listening paradigm with music and speech.


METHODS
Eight chord sequences and 8 spoken syllable sequences were simultaneously presented, each to 1 ear. For the musical sequences, the final chord was expected (i.e., tonic) or less expected (i.e., subdominant). In addition to tonal function, which was task irrelevant, we manipulated the final syllable and the final timbre of the sequences for the experimental task: Participants were asked to identify the final syllable (/di/, /du/) or the timbre of the final chord (Timbre A or B).


RESULTS
Our experiment revealed a left-ear advantage for the tonal function effect on spoken syllable identification. For syllables presented to the right ear, identification was faster when the final chord of the musical sequence was a tonic chord rather than a subdominant chord (i.e., musical sequences presented to the left ear).


CONCLUSIONS
The present finding extends the effect of musical structure previously observed for sung and visual syllable processing to spoken syllable processing. It further suggests a right-hemispheric specialization for the processing of musical structures in healthy listeners, as previously reported for split-brain patients (Tramo & Bharucha, 1991).
Hoch
Lisianne
L
Universite de Lyon and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Neurosciences, Sensorielles, Comportement, Cognition, Lyon, France. lisianne.hoch@olfac.univ-lyon1.fr
Tillmann
Barbara
B
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology; D009146:Music; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D055815:Young Adult