future inclusion of the music of living composers and 20th Century classics in neuroscientific studies
may lead to interesting new discoveries.^29
Music of Non-Western cultures
As reported in the present chapter, NM I 2002 included seven cross-cultural studies. In NM II 2005,
music of other cultures was not represented. NM III 2008 included four cross-cultural studies.
Cross-cultural studies, NM I
Demorest and Morrison (NM I no. 8, pp. 112-117). An fMRI study of differences in brain activation
due to cultural differences, based on excerpts from A. Scarlatti: Sonata Terza and a traditional Chi-
nese piece, Liu Qin Niang.
De Poli (NM I no. 9, pp. 118-123) reports studies of expressive intentions in performance of melodies
from Western classical and Afro-american music. However, the examples of Afro-american music are
not specified.
Neuhaus (NM I no. 23, pp. 184-188) has compared the ERP responses (MMN) of German, Turkish,
and Indian musicians to European and Thai scales and a Turkish makam.
Sittiprapaporn et al. (NM no. 26, pp. 199-203) have conducted a MMN study of native Thai speakers’
preattentive responses to syllables of two tonal languages, Thai and Chinese.
Trehub (NM I no. 46, pp. 402-413). As part of a comprehensive review, Trehub includes studies of
American and Japanese children (pp. 408-409). The studies investigate the children’s accuracy at
identifying the pitch level of familiar TV and movie signature tunes.
Drake & El Heni (NM I no. 48, pp. 429-437) have tested Tunisian and French adults’ ability to tap in
synchrony with typical Tunisian and French popular songs.
Ruzza et al. (NM I no. 60, pp. 527-529) explore the differences between early vocalizations in Italian
and Moroccan infants.
Cross-cultural studies, NM III
Wong et al. (NM III no. 19, pp. 157-163) have conducted a study of responses to Indian and Western
music in groups of listeners who were monomusical, and listeners who were bimusical, enculturated
in both cultures.
Nguyen et al. (NM III no. 71, pp. 490-493) have studied French participants’ ability to discriminate
pitch variation in Mandarin Chinese, which is a tonal language.
Trehub et al. (NM III no. 78, pp. 534-542) have investigated the ability to recognize TV theme songs
in Japanese and Canadian children with cochlear implants.
Kraus et al. (NM III no. 79, pp. 543-557) have compared auditory brain stem responses to pitch in
speakers of English and Mandarin Chinese (p. 546).
29 Interestingly, in the conference 2000 entitled The Biological Foundations of Music, a paper investigated the music of
numerous 20th Century composers. This conference was the precursor of the Neurosciences and Music Conferences. In
a paper on similarity, invariance, and musical variation, McAdams & Matzkin (2001:62-76) discussed the music of Bartok,
Boulez, Ligeti, Messiaen, Penderecki, and Xenakis.