title: Visual processing of music notation: a study of event-related potentials.
abstract: In reading music, the acquisition of pitch information depends mostly on the spatial position of notes, hence more spatial processing, whereas the acquisition of temporal information depends mostly on the visual features of notes and object recognition. This study used both electrophysiological and behavioral methods to compare the processing of pitch and duration in reading single musical notes. It was observed that in the early stage of note reading, identification of pitch could elicit greater N1 and N2 amplitude than identification of duration at the parietal lobe electrodes. In the later stages of note reading, identifying pitch elicited a greater negative slow wave at parietal electrodes than did identifying note duration. The sustained contribution of parietal processes for pitch suggests that the dorsal pathway is essential for pitch processing. However, the duration task did not elicit greater amplitude of any early ERP components than the pitch task at temporal electrodes. Accordingly, a double dissociation, suggesting involvement of the dorsal visual stream, was not observed in spatial pitch processing and ventral visual stream in processing of note durations.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung City, Taiwan, ROC. hoyih@csmu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Horng-Yih
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yu-Sin
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult