Musical harmony is processed during sleep: a proof-of-concept study

Musical chords represent the most basic musical elements, conveying emotional information. During wakefulness, different musical chord categories elicit distinct neuronal correlates and emotions, with major chords typically inducing more positive and minor chords negative ones. However, it remains unclear whether the brain continues to process musical chords differently when presented during sleep. To address this question, we conducted a proof-of-concept study and presented musical major, minor, and dissonant chords to 47 healthy participants during nocturnal non-rapid eye movement sleep. Prior to sleep, participants rated the chords in valence and arousal. Sleep was recorded using polysomnography. Our analysis of event-related responses during sleep revealed significant differences between the three musical chord categories. Major chords induced the strongest negative amplitude approximately 800 ms after chord onset, indicated as peak-to-peak (PTP) amplitude from the earlier positive peak. Minor chords showed intermediate PTP amplitudes, while dissonant chords elicited the lowest PTP amplitudes. In the time-frequency domain, these differences were also apparent, including differences in slow-wave, theta, alpha, and sleep spindle bands across chord categories. Notably, experience in playing a musical instrument induced stronger differentiation of musical harmony during sleep compared with participants who never played a musical instrument. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the different processing of single musical chords persists during sleep, influenced by harmonic features and musical expertise in the context of Western musical conventions. Future research should explore whether longer and more complex harmonic features (e.g. chord sequences or musical pieces) are differentially processed by the sleeping brain.