On musical interval perception for complex tones at very high frequencies

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Psychoacoustics
• Music Perception

Background:

• Listeners can perceive pitch from complex tones even when fundamental frequency information is ambiguous.
• High-frequency harmonics may provide pitch cues, but the mechanisms are not fully understood, especially concerning phase-locking limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate musical interval perception in high-frequency harmonic complex tones.
• To determine how the presumed limit of neural phase locking affects pitch perception.
• To explore the role of stimulus familiarity in high-frequency pitch perception.

Main Methods:

• Experimentally presenting harmonic complex tones with fundamental frequencies (F0s) of 280 Hz and 1400 Hz to musically trained listeners.
• Listeners adjusted musical intervals using stimuli containing harmonics 6-10.
• Absolute pitch judgments were performed on complex tones with varying F0s and harmonic ranges.

Main Results:

• Musical interval matches were possible but significantly worse for high F0 (1400 Hz) compared to low F0 (280 Hz), even when harmonics were above the phase-locking limit.
• High F0 matches exhibited larger systematic errors and higher variability, requiring more trials.
• Absolute pitch judgments were accurate for stimuli with the lowest component below 7 kHz but showed over 50% errors above 8 kHz.

Conclusions:

• Pitch perception from high-frequency harmonics is possible but less precise than at lower frequencies.
• Reduced accuracy suggests that phase-locking information is crucial for high-frequency pitch, and its absence impacts interval perception.
• Familiarity with high-frequency stimuli may play a role, but its effect is secondary to the limitations imposed by neural processing mechanisms.