Beat processing is pre-attentive for metrically simple rhythms with clear accents: an ERP study.

ABSTRACT: The perception of a regular beat is fundamental to music processing. Here we examine whether the detection of a regular beat is pre-attentive for metrically simple, acoustically varying stimuli using the mismatch negativity (MMN), an ERP response elicited by violations of acoustic regularity irrespective of whether subjects are attending to the stimuli. Both musicians and non-musicians were presented with a varying rhythm with a clear accent structure in which occasionally a sound was omitted. We compared the MMN response to the omission of identical sounds in different metrical positions. Most importantly, we found that omissions in strong metrical positions, on the beat, elicited higher amplitude MMN responses than omissions in weak metrical positions, not on the beat. This suggests that

SUBMITTER: Bouwer FL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4037171 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature