In western music, harmonic expectations can be fulfilled or broken by
unexpected chords. In the present study, we explored the factors
interacting with the processing of dissonant violations of musical context.
Previous research has described the neural responses of unexpected
dissonance but it remains unclear to what extent they can be modulated. We
examined whether the perception of unexpected dissonance interacts with the
amount of expectation built and musical training. Also, we investigated
whether listeners differently adapt to frequent dissonance as a function of
music expertise. First, we compared the event-related potentials of
musicians and non-musicians listening to dissonant chords at intermediate
or ending positions of chord cadences. Second, we analysed the ERPs of
musicians and non-musicians to a high proportion (50%) of cadences ending
in a dissonant chord. We found that clusters elicit a larger early
negativity and P3a in musicians and a larger N5 in non-musicians, and that
each component differently varied with the amount of expectation. Expert
listeners may process dissonance as a musically-unacceptable oddball due to
their enhanced sensitivity, while naïve listeners react to it as any other
syntactic violation. Frequently-occurring dissonance elicited similar ERP
effects. Thus, western listeners may not be able to adapt to recurrent
dissonant endings, even if they can anticipate them. Our study suggests
that dissonance is hard to assimilate as a closure of musical context (even
if it occurs frequently) for all listeners, but musicianship influences the
neural mechanisms that are recruited for its processing.
--
Carlota Pagès
PhD Student
<https://www.upf.edu/web/lcc/entry/-/-/139611/adscripcion/carlota-pag%C3%A8s>
Language & Comparative Cognition Group <https://www.upf.edu/web/lcc> l Center
for Brain and Cognition <http://cbc.upf.edu/> l UPF
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