Mapping Musical Pitch in the Brain
Published: 31 May 2019
on channel: NIH IRP (Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Health)
on channel: NIH IRP (Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Health)
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To study how the brain is tuned for musical pitch, scientists monitored brain activity while playing a series of harmonic sounds, or tones, to healthy volunteers and monkeys. They then compared the activity with responses evoked by the sounds of toneless versions of the sounds, called noises, that were designed to match the frequency levels of each tone played. Here is an example of one harmonic tone played three times followed by three samples of an equivalent toneless noise. Courtesy of the NIH.