The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music

two right hemisphere quadrants (Figure 21.9B). This is of interest because neuropsycho-

logical studies of brain-damaged patients suggests that left superior temporal regions are

involved with the discrimination of precise interval sizes, while right fronto-temporal

circuits have an additional role in the perception of more global contour patterns.19,47

Thus the observed pattern of coherence may reflect the dynamic integration of local and

global pitch perception, and suggests that this integration is greatest when tone sequences

resemble musical melodies.

340     

Figure 21.9 Results of phase coherence analysis conducted in order to study the interaction of brain regions
during the perception of different sequence types. Panel (A) shows that coherence is lowest for random sequences,
and that among the structured sequences, is greatest in the 1/f^2 sequences (which most closely resemble real musical
melodies in their statistical structure). Panel (B) shows the regional interactions underlying this result.
The relatively higher coherence in 1/f^2 sequences results from interactions between the left posterior brain quad-
rant and other brain quadrants. The coupling between left posterior and right anterior and posterior brain regions
may represent a dynamic neural correlate of the integration of pitch interval and pitch contour perception, that is,
local and global pitch processing (see text and Patel and Balaban^44 for details).

Condition

Posterior

Anterior

Left Right

Coherence rank

• 1000
  
  
  • 500
  
  
  
  

0

500

1000

Random 1/f 1/f^2 Scales

A

B