Harmonic partials facilitate pitch discrimination in humans: electrophysiological and behavioral evidence

The effect of the spectral tone structure on pre-attentive and attentive pi tch discrimination was investigated. The mismatch negativity (MMN) componen t was recorded from reading subjects to pitch changes of identical magnitud e in pure tones with only one sinusoidal frequency component and in spectra lly rich tones with two additional harmonic partials. In a separate conditi on, subjects were asked to indicate detection of pitch change by a button p ress, The MMN was elicited with a larger amplitude and shorter latency by c hange in spectrally rich tones than by change in pure tones. Furthermore, t he subjects' behavioral responses were more accurate for spectrally rich to nes than for sinusoidal tones. Together these data indicate that pre-attent ive a nd attentive pitch discrimination is facilitated with spectrally rich sounds in comparison to pure sinusoidal tones. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science I reland Ltd. All rights reserved.