Absolute Pitch and the P300 Component of the Event-Related Potential: An Exploration of Variables That May Account for Individual Differences

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bischoff Renninger ◽  
Roni I. Granot ◽  
Emanuel Donchin
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Relative Pitch ◽  
P300 Component ◽  
Auditory Tasks ◽  
The Brain

Our primary goal has been to elucidate a model of pitch memory by examining the brain activity of musicians with and without absolute pitch during listening tasks. Subjects, screened for both absolute and relative pitch abilities, were presented with two auditory tasks and one visual task that served as a control. In the first auditory task (pitch memory task), subjects were asked to differentiate between diatonic and nondiatonic tones within a tonal framework. In the second auditory task (contour task), subjects were presented with the same pitch sequences but instead asked to differentiate between tones moving upward or downward. For the visual control task, subjects were presented again with the same pitch sequences and asked to determine whether each pitch was diatonic or nondiatonic, only this time the note names appeared visually on the computer screen. Our findings strongly suggest that there are various levels of absolute pitch ability. Some absolute pitch subjects have, in addition to this skill, strong relative pitch abilities, and these differences are reflected quite consistently by the behavior of the P300 component of the event-related potential. Our research also strengthens the idea that the memory system for pitch and interval distances is distinct from the memory system for contour (W. J. Dowling, 1978). Our results are discussed within the context of the current absolute pitch literature.

scholarly journals Insights into Early Word Comprehension: Tracking the Neural Representations of Word Semantics in Infants.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Saha ◽  
Jennifer Campbell ◽  
Janet F. Werker ◽  
Alona Fyshe
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Word Comprehension ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
The Brain

Infants start developing rudimentary language skills and can start understanding simple words well before their first birthday. This development has also been shown primarily using Event Related Potential (ERP) techniques to find evidence of word comprehension in the infant brain. While these works validate the presence of semantic representations of words (word meaning) in infants, they do not tell us about the mental processes involved in the manifestation of these semantic representations or the content of the representations. To this end, we use a decoding approach where we employ machine learning techniques on Electroencephalography (EEG) data to predict the semantic representations of words found in the brain activity of infants. We perform multiple analyses to explore word semantic representations in two groups of infants (9-month-old and 12-month-old). Our analyses show significantly above chance decodability of overall word semantics, word animacy, and word phonetics. As we analyze brain activity, we observe that participants in both age groups show signs of word comprehension immediately after word onset, marked by our model's significantly above chance word prediction accuracy. We also observed strong neural representations of word phonetics in the brain data for both age groups, some likely correlated to word decoding accuracy and others not. Lastly, we discover that the neural representations of word semantics are similar in both infant age groups. Our results on word semantics, phonetics, and animacy decodability, give us insights into the evolution of neural representation of word meaning in infants.

scholarly journals A Fast Visual Recognition Memory System in Humans Identified Using Intracerebral ERP

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 2961-2971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elodie Despouy ◽  
Jonathan Curot ◽  
Martin Deudon ◽  
Ludovic Gardy ◽  
Marie Denuelle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Visual Recognition Memory ◽  
Fast Recognition

Abstract One key item of information retrieved when surveying our visual world is whether or not objects are familiar. However, there is no consensus on the respective roles of medial temporal lobe structures, particularly the perirhinal cortex (PRC) and hippocampus. We considered whether the PRC could support a fast recognition memory system independently from the hippocampus. We recorded the intracerebral electroencephalograph activity of epileptic patients while they were performing a fast visual recognition memory task, constraining them to use their quickest strategy. We performed event-related potential (ERP) and classification analyses. The PRC was, by far, the earliest region involved in recognition memory. This activity occurred before the first behavioral responses and was found to be related to reaction times, unlike the hippocampus. Single-trial analyses showed that decoding power was equivalent in the PRC and hippocampus but occurred much earlier in the PRC. A critical finding was that recognition memory-related activity occurred in different frontal and parietal regions, including the supplementary motor area, before the hippocampus. These results, based on ERP analyses, suggest that the human brain is equipped with a fast recognition memory system, which may bypass the hippocampus and in which the PRC plays a critical role.

The brain activity for food picture in working memory task

NeuroImage ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. S144
Author(s):  
K Stingl ◽  
M Rogic ◽  
K Porubska ◽  
C Canova ◽  
O Tschritter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
The Brain

Neural Responses to Melodic and Harmonic Closure: An Event-Related-Potential Study

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin C. Hantz ◽  
Kelley G. Kreilick ◽  
William Kananen ◽  
Kenneth P. Swartz
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Brain Wave ◽  
Maximum Value ◽  
Negative Drift ◽  
Subject Variables ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
The Brain

The event-related evoked potential (ERP) responses to sentence endings that either confirm or violate syntactic/semantic constraints have been extensively studied. Very little is known, however, about the corresponding situation with respect to music. The current study investigates the brain- wave (ERP) responses to perceived phrase closure. ERPs are a potentially valid measure of how language-like or uniquely musical the perception of phrase closure is. In our study, highly trained musicians (N= 16) judged whether or not novel musical phrases were closed (melodically or harmonically). Three stimulus series consisted of seven- note tunes with four possible endings: closed (tonic note or tonic chord), open/ diatonic (dominant chord or a member thereof), open/ chromatic (a chromatic note or chord outside the key of the melody), or open/white noise (a nonmusical control). One series included melodies alone, a second series included melodies harmonized, and a third series included melodies in which the melodic contexts were disrupted rather than the endings. In the recorded ERPs, a statistically significant negative drift in the waveforms occurred over the course of the context series, indicating anticipation of closure. The drift-corrected poststimulus waveforms for all series were subjected to a principal components analysis/analysis of variance. Two subject variables were also considered: sex and absolute pitch. All four stimulus types elicited identifiable responses. The waveform peaks for the four stimulus types are clearly differentiated by principal component analysis scores to two components: one with a maximum value at 273 ms and one with a maximum value at 471 ms. Taking the closed endings as the expected "standard," the waveforms for the two types of musical deviant endings were significantly below the standard at 273 ms and above the standard at 471 ms. The amount of negativity was proportional to the amount of deviance of the ending. The positive peak in the closed condition and the reduced peak in the open/diatonic condition are contrary to the normal inverse relationship between peak size and stimulus probability; the former agrees with peaks found in response to syntactic closure in language. Significant, though isolated, interactions involving both sex and absolute pitch also emerged.

scholarly journals BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism modulates brain activity following rTMS-induced memory impairment

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kilian Abellaneda-Pérez ◽  
Pablo Martin-Trias ◽  
Catherine Cassé-Perrot ◽  
Lídia Vaqué-Alcázar ◽  
Laura Lanteaume ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Gene Polymorphism ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Impairment ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Memory Phase ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism is a relevant factor explaining inter-individual differences to TMS responses in studies of the motor system. However, whether this variant also contributes to TMS-induced memory effects, as well as their underlying brain mechanisms, remains unexplored. In this investigation, we applied rTMS during encoding of a visual memory task either over the left frontal cortex (LFC; experimental condition) or the cranial vertex (control condition). Subsequently, individuals underwent a recognition memory phase during a functional MRI acquisition. We included 43 young volunteers and classified them as 19 Met allele carriers and 24 as Val/Val individuals. The results revealed that rTMS delivered over LFC compared to vertex stimulation resulted in reduced memory performance only amongst Val/Val allele carriers. This genetic group also exhibited greater fMRI brain activity during memory recognition, mainly over frontal regions, which was positively associated with cognitive performance. We concluded that BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism, known to exert a significant effect on neuroplasticity, modulates the impact of rTMS both at the cognitive as well as at the associated brain networks expression levels. This data provides new insights on the brain mechanisms explaining cognitive inter-individual differences to TMS, and may inform future, more individually-tailored rTMS interventions.

scholarly journals Cost-efficient and Custom Electrode-holder Assembly Infrastructure for EEG Recordings

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (19) ◽  
pp. 4273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan-Pin Lin ◽  
Ting-Yu Chen ◽  
Wei-Jen Chen
Keyword(s):  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Fundamental Study ◽  
Electrode Holder ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Fixed Design ◽  
Eeg Recordings ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
The Brain

Mobile electroencephalogram (EEG)-sensing technologies have rapidly progressed and made the access of neuroelectrical brain activity outside the laboratory in everyday life more realistic. However, most existing EEG headsets exhibit a fixed design, whereby its immobile montage in terms of electrode density and coverage inevitably poses a great challenge with applicability and generalizability to the fundamental study and application of the brain-computer interface (BCI). In this study, a cost-efficient, custom EEG-electrode holder infrastructure was designed through the assembly of primary components, including the sensor-positioning ring, inter-ring bridge, and bridge shield. It allows a user to (re)assemble a compact holder grid to accommodate a desired number of electrodes only to the regions of interest of the brain and iteratively adapt it to a given head size for optimal electrode-scalp contact and signal quality. This study empirically demonstrated its easy-to-fabricate nature by a low-end fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer and proved its practicability of capturing event-related potential (ERP) and steady-state visual-evoked potential (SSVEP) signatures over 15 subjects. This paper highlights the possibilities for a cost-efficient electrode-holder assembly infrastructure with replaceable montage, flexibly retrofitted in an unlimited fashion, for an individual for distinctive fundamental EEG studies and BCI applications.

Seeing Sounds and Hearing Colors: An Event-related Potential Study of Auditory–Visual Synesthesia

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 1869-1881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aviva I. Goller ◽  
Leun J. Otten ◽  
Jamie Ward
Keyword(s):  
Evoked Potential ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Visual Illusions ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potential ◽  
Auditory Target ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity ◽  
And Control ◽  
Brief Tones ◽  
The Brain

In auditory–visual synesthesia, sounds automatically elicit conscious and reliable visual experiences. It is presently unknown whether this reflects early or late processes in the brain. It is also unknown whether adult audiovisual synesthesia resembles auditory-induced visual illusions that can sometimes occur in the general population or whether it resembles the electrophysiological deflection over occipital sites that has been noted in infancy and has been likened to synesthesia. Electrical brain activity was recorded from adult synesthetes and control participants who were played brief tones and required to monitor for an infrequent auditory target. The synesthetes were instructed to attend either to the auditory or to the visual (i.e., synesthetic) dimension of the tone, whereas the controls attended to the auditory dimension alone. There were clear differences between synesthetes and controls that emerged early (100 msec after tone onset). These differences tended to lie in deflections of the auditory-evoked potential (e.g., the auditory N1, P2, and N2) rather than the presence of an additional posterior deflection. The differences occurred irrespective of what the synesthetes attended to (although attention had a late effect). The results suggest that differences between synesthetes and others occur early in time, and that synesthesia is qualitatively different from similar effects found in infants and certain auditory-induced visual illusions in adults. In addition, we report two novel cases of synesthesia in which colors elicit sounds, and vice versa.

scholarly journals Driving With Distraction: Measuring Brain Activity and Oculomotor Behavior Using fMRI and Eye-Tracking

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole H. Yuen ◽  
Fred Tam ◽  
Nathan W. Churchill ◽  
Tom A. Schweizer ◽  
Simon J. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Driving Performance ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
Blink Rate ◽  
Simulated Driving ◽  
Oculomotor Behavior ◽  
Left Turns ◽  
The Brain

IntroductionDriving motor vehicles is a complex task that depends heavily on how visual stimuli are received and subsequently processed by the brain. The potential impact of distraction on driving performance is well known and poses a safety concern – especially for individuals with cognitive impairments who may be clinically unfit to drive. The present study is the first to combine functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye-tracking during simulated driving with distraction, providing oculomotor metrics to enhance scientific understanding of the brain activity that supports driving performance.Materials and MethodsAs initial work, twelve healthy young, right-handed participants performed turns ranging in complexity, including simple right and left turns without oncoming traffic, and left turns with oncoming traffic. Distraction was introduced as an auditory task during straight driving, and during left turns with oncoming traffic. Eye-tracking data were recorded during fMRI to characterize fixations, saccades, pupil diameter and blink rate.ResultsBrain activation maps for right turns, left turns without oncoming traffic, left turns with oncoming traffic, and the distraction conditions were largely consistent with previous literature reporting the neural correlates of simulated driving. When the effects of distraction were evaluated for left turns with oncoming traffic, increased activation was observed in areas involved in executive function (e.g., middle and inferior frontal gyri) as well as decreased activation in the posterior brain (e.g., middle and superior occipital gyri). Whereas driving performance remained mostly unchanged (e.g., turn speed, time to turn, collisions), the oculomotor measures showed that distraction resulted in more consistent gaze at oncoming traffic in a small area of the visual scene; less time spent gazing at off-road targets (e.g., speedometer, rear-view mirror); more time spent performing saccadic eye movements; and decreased blink rate.ConclusionOculomotor behavior modulated with driving task complexity and distraction in a manner consistent with the brain activation features revealed by fMRI. The results suggest that eye-tracking technology should be included in future fMRI studies of simulated driving behavior in targeted populations, such as the elderly and individuals with cognitive complaints – ultimately toward developing better technology to assess and enhance fitness to drive.

Effects of musical training and absolute pitch on a pitch memory task: An event-related potential study.

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin C. Hantz ◽  
Kelley G. Kreilick ◽  
Amy L. Braveman ◽  
Kenneth P. Swartz
Keyword(s):  
Musical Training ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Potential Study

Neural and Retinal Characteristics in Relation to Working Memory in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabel Ngai Kiu Wong ◽  
Daniel Wing Leung Lai ◽  
Henry Ho-Lung Chan ◽  
Bess Yin-Hung Lam
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Neural Activities ◽  
The Relationship

Objective: This study investigated the relationship between neural activities and retinal structures associated with working memory (WM) in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: Eleven older adults with MCI and 29 healthy controls (60 to 73 years old) were tested. All participants underwent an event-related potential (ERP) recording while performing the two-back memory task. The Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) was administered to examine the perfusion and vessel density in the retina. Results: Results showed that WM performance in the MCI group was negatively associated with ERP latencies in central parietal regions (CP6 and CP8) (ps< 0.05). The left nasal vessel and perfusion den- sities were negatively correlated with the latencies in these two central parietal regions and positively related to WM performance only in the MCI group (ps< 0.05). Conclusion: The findings on WM, central parietal brain activity, and left nasal vessel and perfusion densities in the retina help us gain a better understanding of the neural and retinal underpinnings of WM in relation to MCI.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document