right superior temporal gyrus (STG) was noted regardless of the familiarity of the music (p. 113). In
contrast, an additional test showed differences in activation responses to English and Chinese lan-
guage.
The authors conclude that subjects’ activation did not differ on the basis of the cultural familiari-
ty of the music, but on the basis of musical expertise. They add that even if they do not regard music
as a ”universal language”, they find that each listener may apply his or her comprehension strategies
to all music (p. 114). The authors’ meticulous choice of musical stimuli deserves attention. They have
published full a report of their study (Morrison, Demorest et al. 2003).
Professional musicians and non-musicians
Münte et al. (NM I no. 11, pp. 131-139) review event-related brain potential (ERP) studies of audi-
tory stimuli processing by professional musicians and non-musicians. Based on measurements of
responses to single sinus tones, spatially distributed sound sources, and a real drum sequence, they
find qualitative processing differences between musicians and non-musicians. Furthermore, they find
specific differences between musicians. In a study of timing abilities, drummers appear to have a
more complex representation of the musical time structure than woodwind players. In a study of au-
ditory space perception, conductors appear to have greater sensitivity for peripheral sound sources
than pianists (p. 138).
Untrained listeners possess auditory expertise
Bigand (NM I no. 37, pp. 304-312) argues that some studies tend to exaggerate the importance of
musical training, and that tests of simple qualities of musical sound are not necessarily relevant for
the perception of real music. He reports tests of musical tension in melodies and harmonic sequenc-
es, and tests of memorizing Haydn sonata extracts and newly composed dodecaphonic canons. In
all four tests, highly trained music students did not perform better that non-musicians. Bigand con-
cludes that in experiments where the participants process musical structures, in contrast to musical
tones, untrained listeners exhibit musical abilities which are comparable to the abilities of experts (p.
304). He suggests that the mere exposure to music is sufficient for the development of a sophisticat-
ed auditory expertise (p. 311).
Developmental psychology
Trehub (NM I no. 46, pp. 402-413) reviews 93 articles on the developmental psychology of music,
and comments critically on prevailing beliefs. Regarding absolute pitch, she points out that recent
research offers no support for the view that absolute pitch processing dominates in early life (p.
405). In her own study on adults’ recognition of the pitch level of instrumental excerpts from popular
TV programs, she finds that adults with minimal musical training remember the pitch level of music
heard incidentally, provided that the test context features familiar, ecologicallly valid materials (p.
406). She argues that at times, naiveté about cultural conventions leads infants to outperform adults
on specific music tasks, for example differentiated perception of melodic changes and atypical me-
ters (p. 404). She emphasizes that a developmental approach can provide important insight into
many issues in music cognition (p. 402)
Embodiment, motion, and emotion
Musical expression
De Poli (NM I no. 9, pp. 118-123) reports studies of expressive intentions in music performance con-
ducted by his group at the Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Italy. Basis
for the studies were recordings of 10-20 sec. melodies from Western classical and Afro-american
music. Professional musicians played the music according to different expressive intentions in order
to make the music sound neutral, bright, dark, hard, soft, heavy, or light. One noteworthy example
was a fragment of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto K. 622. Technically speaking, the musicians introduced