title: Interaction between bottom-up and top-down effects during the processing of pitch intervals in sequences of spoken and sung syllables.
abstract: The processing of pitch intervals may be differentially influenced when musical or speech stimuli carry the pitch information. Most insights into the neural basis of pitch interval processing come from studies on music perception. However, music, in contrast to speech, contains a stable set of pitch intervals. To converge the investigation of pitch interval processing in music and speech, we used sequences of the same spoken or sung syllables. The pitch of these syllables varied either by semitone steps like in music or by smaller intervals. Participants had to differentiate the sequences according to their different sizes of pitch intervals or to the direction of the last frequency step in the sequence. The results depended strongly on the specific task demands. Whereas the interval-size task itself recruited more regions in right lateralized fronto-parietal brain network, stronger activity on semitone than on non-semitone sequences was found in the left hemisphere (mainly in frontal cortex) during this task. These effects were also influenced by the speech mode (spoken or sung syllables). Our findings suggest that the processing of pitch intervals in sequences of syllables depends on an interaction between bottom-up (speech mode, pitch interval) and top-down effects (task).
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Brenneckestr. 6, 39118 Magdeburg, Germany. nicole.angenstein@lin-magdeburg.de
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Angenstein
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Scheich
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brechmann
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult