Sinus tones and musical tones
Two papers contribute to a critical view of the methods of neuroscience. Based on Mismatch Neg-
ativity (MMN) studies, Tervaniemi & Huotilainen (NM I no. 2, pp. 29-39) find evidence that complex
sounds are automatically represented in the human auditory cortex, and point out that music-sound
encoding differs not only from speech sounds, but also from sinus tones. (p. 29, 37).
EEG studies by Trainor et al. (NM I no. 55, pp. 506-513) confirm that violin tones and piano tones
evoke cortical responses that are different from the responses of sinus tones (p. 510).
These findings suggest that studies based on sinus tones stimuli are not necessarily relevant
for the perception of music.
Parallel pathways
E.G. Jones (NM I no. 30, pp. 218-233) presents an elaborate study of parallel pathways in the mon-
key auditory system. He suggests that two similar parallel pathways from the brain stem to the cortex
exist in the human auditory system. One pathway projects to the core area of the auditory cortex,
and transfers information relevant to pitch perception. The other pathway projects to the belt area of
the auditory cortex, and conveys information that is more diverse than pitch.^6 Jones considers the
latter pathway particularly important for music perception. He strongly recommends that studies of
human auditory processing should focus less on pitch and more on complex sounds of greater bio-
logical relevance, including music (p. 218, 231).
Culture, development, and training
Thai and Chinese tonal languages
Sittiprapaporn et al. (NM I no. 26, pp. 199-203) have conducted a mismatch negativity (MMN) study
of tonal languages. They have chosen MMN, because they consider this response to be a unique
indicator of automatic cerebral processing of acoustic stimuli. The aim of the study was to compare
neural responses to consonant-vocal syllables from two tonal languages, Thai and Chinese. The
researchers selected two stimuli, both with a falling tone, a Thai ”kha”, and a Chinese ”ta”. They pre-
pared two sequences of these stimuli, one with ”ta” as standard, and ”kha” as deviant, roughly: ta ta
ta ta ta ta ta ta kha ta ta ta...; the other with ”kha” as standard and ”ta” as deviant, roughly: kha kha
kha kha kha kha kha kha ta kha kha kha...
Nine healthy Thai speakers participated. They listened to randomized sequences of 500 syl-
lables, consisting of 90 % standard and 10 % deviant syllables. While listening, they read a book of
their choice in order to ignore the auditory stimulation. The study revealed that spoken words from
the subject’s native language elicited greater electric sources of the mismatch negativity, correspond-
ing to a pre-attentive response (p. 201). The authors suggest that this finding indicates the presence
of a long-term memory trace for spoken words in tonal languages (p. 199).
Familiar and unfamiliar culture
In a fMRI study, Demorest and Morrison (NM I no. 8, pp. 112-117) have investigated Western sub-
jects’ responses to music of their native culture and music of an unfamiliar culture. They chose two
pieces of real music for their study, carefully matched for instrumental timbre, texture, and tempo;
excerpts from A. Scarlatti: Sonata Terza in C minor for Treble Recorder, Strings and Basso Continuo,
and from a traditional Chinese piece, Liu Qin Niang. The participants were all Western, six profes-
sional string players and six untrained control subjects. fMRI scans were conducted in order to de-
termine differences in activation responses to Western and Chinese music. Comparison of the two
groups showed no such differences. However, for professional musicians, significant activation in the
6 E.G. Jones’ research is not confined to animal studies. He is the author of the reference work regarding the Thalamus
in the human brain (Jones 2007).
For descriptions of the core, belt and parabelt regions of the auditory cortex, see Tramo et al. (NM II no. 15, pp. 148-174);
Malmierca & Hackett (2010:31-35); Brodal (2010:249).