title: Musicians and non-musicians' different reliance of features in consonance perception: a behavioral and ERP study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to compare the different features that musicians and non-musicians rely upon when they discern consonant and dissonant intervals. Previous studies have addressed this issue from the perspective of either the frequency ratio (Western music theory) or the frequency difference (psychoacoustics), but have not considered both features in a single and balanced study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve musicians and twelve non-musicians judged musical consonance at various 50-500 Hz intervals, orthogonally selected from across the "pitch interval" and "roughness" spectrum. Both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data were collected separately.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Behavioral results demonstrated that while musicians relied upon pitch intervals (between perfect fifths and tritones, with 95% accuracy), non-musicians performed around chance. The latter performance could, however, be sub-divided into "rough tritone and non-rough perfect-fifth" (70-80%) and "non-rough tritone and rough perfect-fifth" combinations (25-30%), suggesting non-musicians' reliance on the roughness dimension. ERP components revealed corresponding P2 (200-250 ms) amplitude differences in the Fz and Cz channels for the "tritones vs. perfect fifths" comparison in musicians, and by the "rough vs. non-rough" comparison in the non-musicians. In addition, N1 (∼100 ms) and N2 (300-400 ms) components also revealed difference in Fz, F3, F4, FCz, Cz and CPz electrodes for "tritones vs. perfect fifths" in musicians. In the non-musicians, a stronger negative N2 for rough than for non-rough stimuli was found at F4 and Cz.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Together, these results suggest that musicians and non-musicians rely upon pitch intervals and sensory roughness, respectively, for consonance/dissonance perception.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare independently across the pitch interval and roughness spectrum. Our results further support the brain plasticity as a result of musical training in consonance perception.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chun-Chia
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Kung
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsung-Hao
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jen-Yu
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Liou
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kuei-Ju
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan. Electronic address: fzshaw@mail.ncku.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Fu-Zen
authors.initials: FZ
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan. Electronic address: sfliang@mail.ncku.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Sheng-Fu
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D009146:Music; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Consonance; ERPs; Musicians; Pitch interval; Roughness