Event-related brain potentials to sound omissions differ in musicians and non-musicians

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory event-related brain potential reflects the automatic detection of sou nd change. MMN to occasi onally omitted sounds in a tone series can be used to investigate the time course of temporal integration in the acoustic system. We used MMN to study differences in temporal integration in musicians and non-musicians. In exp eriment 1, occasionally omitted 'sounds' in an otherwise regular tone serie s evoked a reliable MMN at interstimulus intervals (SOAs) of 100, 120, 180 and 220 ms in musicians. In non-musicians, MMN was smaller/absent in the 18 0 and 220 ms SOAs, respectively. In experiment 2, deviance of a tone was in duced by presenting tones at a shorter SOA (100 or 130 ms) compared to the standard stimulus (150 ms). Musicians showed a reliable MMN for both devian t SOAs whereas non-musicians showed an MMN only for tones presented 50 ms p rior to a standard tone (SOA 100 ms). These results indicate that the tempo ral window of integration seems to be longer and more precise in musicians compared to musical laypersons and that long-term training is reflected in changes in neural activity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All righ ts reserved.