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Human pitch perception is reflected in the timing of stimulus-related cortical activity

Nature Neuroscience volume 4, pages 839–844 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

'Pitch' refers to a sound's subjective highness or lowness, as distinct from 'frequency,' which refers to a sound's physical structure. In speech, music and other natural contexts, complex tones are often perceived with a single pitch. Using whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) and stimuli that dissociate pitch from frequency, we studied cortical dynamics in normal individuals who extracted different pitches from the same tone complexes. Whereas all subjects showed similar spatial distributions in the magnitude of their brain responses to the stimuli, subjects who heard different pitches exhibited contrasting temporal patterns of brain activity in their right but not their left hemispheres. These data demonstrate a specific relationship between pitch perception and the timing (phase) of dynamic patterns of cortical activity.

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Figure 1: Complex-tone stimuli with opposite directions of frequency and pitch change.
Figure 2: Power and spatial distribution of the aSSR in each of the four conditions (grand average across subjects).
Figure 3: Auditory steady state response phase is modulated by frequency and by pitch.
Figure 4: Auditory steady state response magnitude modulations. Data are from the same subject shown in Fig. 3.
Figure 5: Passing channels exhibiting phase and magnitude flipping.
Figure 6: Spatial organization of passing channels exhibiting phase and magnitude flipping.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. Kurelowech for technical assistance and Y. Chen for comments. This research was supported by Neurosciences Research Foundation as part of its research program on Music and the Brain at The Neurosciences Institute.

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Author notes

  1. Evan Balaban

    Present address: Program in Neuroscience, CUNY College of Staten Island, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New York, 10314, USA

  2. Aniruddh D. Patel and Evan Balaban: The authors contributed equally to this work

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  1. The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego, 92121, California, USA

    Aniruddh D. Patel & Evan Balaban

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  1. Aniruddh D. Patel
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  2. Evan Balaban
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Correspondence to Aniruddh D. Patel or Evan Balaban.

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Patel, A., Balaban, E. Human pitch perception is reflected in the timing of stimulus-related cortical activity. Nat Neurosci 4, 839–844 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/90557

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