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Modulating Cortical Instrument Representations During Auditory Stream Segregation and Integration With Polyphonic
Lars Hausfeld1,2, Niels R Disbergen1,2, Giancarlo Valente1,2
1Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|October 11, 2021
Summary
Brain
Area of Science:
- Auditory neuroscience
- Music perception
- Cognitive science
Background:
- Auditory cortex tracks speech, enhancing attended speaker perception in multi-speaker settings.
- Music perception differs from speech, allowing for both segregation (individual instruments) and integration (simultaneous instruments).
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate neural mechanisms of music segregation and integration.
- Examine attentional modulation in multi-instrument music listening.
- Compare music tracking to speech tracking findings.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) and sound envelope tracking.
- Presented uniquely composed two-instrument music (bassoon and cello).
- Utilized a validated auditory scene analysis behavioral paradigm.
Main Results:
- Relevant instruments were reconstructed better than irrelevant ones during segregation, similar to speech tracking.
- Attentional modulation was observed for the relevant instrument in middle and late latency windows during segregation.
- No significant attentional modulation was found during the integration task.
Conclusions:
- Top-down modulations enhance relevant instrument representation during music segregation.
- Listeners may use heterogeneous strategies during music integration, leading to no observed attentional modulation.
- Findings extend speech tracking principles to multi-instrument music perception and inform theories of polyphonic music processing.
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