Pitch Discrimination in Musicians and Non-Musicians: Effects of Harmonic Resolvability and Processing Effort. 2016

Federica Bianchi, and Sébastien Santurette, and Dorothea Wendt, and Torsten Dau
Hearing Systems group, Technical University of Denmark, Ørsteds Plads Building 352, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark. fbia@elektro.dtu.dk.

Musicians typically show enhanced pitch discrimination abilities compared to non-musicians. The present study investigated this perceptual enhancement behaviorally and objectively for resolved and unresolved complex tones to clarify whether the enhanced performance in musicians can be ascribed to increased peripheral frequency selectivity and/or to a different processing effort in performing the task. In a first experiment, pitch discrimination thresholds were obtained for harmonic complex tones with fundamental frequencies (F0s) between 100 and 500 Hz, filtered in either a low- or a high-frequency region, leading to variations in the resolvability of audible harmonics. The results showed that pitch discrimination performance in musicians was enhanced for resolved and unresolved complexes to a similar extent. Additionally, the harmonics became resolved at a similar F0 in musicians and non-musicians, suggesting similar peripheral frequency selectivity in the two groups of listeners. In a follow-up experiment, listeners' pupil dilations were measured as an indicator of the required effort in performing the same pitch discrimination task for conditions of varying resolvability and task difficulty. Pupillometry responses indicated a lower processing effort in the musicians versus the non-musicians, although the processing demand imposed by the pitch discrimination task was individually adjusted according to the behavioral thresholds. Overall, these findings indicate that the enhanced pitch discrimination abilities in musicians are unlikely to be related to higher peripheral frequency selectivity and may suggest an enhanced pitch representation at more central stages of the auditory system in musically trained listeners.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009146 Music Sound that expresses emotion through rhythm, melody, and harmony. Classical Music,Hip Hop Music,Jazz Music,Rap Music,Rock and Roll Music,Songs,Vocal Melody,Hop Music, Hip,Melodies, Vocal,Melody, Vocal,Music, Classical,Music, Hip Hop,Music, Jazz,Music, Rap,Song,Vocal Melodies
D010897 Pitch Discrimination The ability to differentiate sound frequency or pitch. Discrimination, Pitch,Pitch Discriminations
D010898 Pitch Perception A dimension of auditory sensation varying with cycles per second of the sound stimulus. Perception, Pitch,Perceptions, Pitch,Pitch Perceptions
D011680 Pupil The aperture in the iris through which light passes. Pupils
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001309 Auditory Threshold The audibility limit of discriminating sound intensity and pitch. Auditory Thresholds,Threshold, Auditory,Thresholds, Auditory

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