Culture Modulates the Brain Response to Harmonic Violations: An EEG Study on Hierarchical Syntactic Structure in Music.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the role of culture in processing hierarchical syntactic structures in music. We examined whether violation of non-local dependencies manifest in event related potentials (ERP) for Western and Iranian excerpts by recording EEG while participants passively listened to sequences of modified/original excerpts. We also investigated oscillatory and synchronization properties of brain responses during processing of hierarchical structures. For the Western excerpt, subjective ratings of conclusiveness were marginally significant and the difference in the ERP components fell short of significance. However, ERP and behavioral results showed that while listening to culturally familiar music, subjects comprehended whether or not the hierarchical syntactic structure was fulfilled. Irre

SUBMITTER: Akrami H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5723651 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature