Lj. Trainor et al., A comparison of contour and interval processing in musicians and nonmusicians using event-related potentials, AUST J PSYC, 51(3), 1999, pp. 147-153
Musicians and nonmusicians detected infrequent changes to the last note of
five-note melodies that either altered the contour (up/down pattern) or the
intervals (pitch distance between notes). Robust frontal P3as, reflecting
automatic capture of attention, as well as P3bs, reflecting analytic stimul
us evaluation, were generated in both contour and interval tasks. These com
ponents did not differ across groups for contour, but were smaller and dela
yed in nonmusicians compared to musicians for interval. However, the topolo
gies were similar for P3a (frontal midline focus) and P3b (parietal midline
focus) across groups and tasks. The amplitude of the P3b in musicians was
negatively correlated with the age of onset of music lessons. Taken togethe
r these findings suggest that (a) contour processing is more basic, (b) int
erval processing may be more affected than contour by experience, and (c) s
imilar brain networks are involved in generating the P3a and P3b in musicia
ns and nonmusicians.