The role of (missing) fundamentals, active listening, and musical expertise in cortical and subcortical correlates of consonance/dissonance
Consonance/dissonance (C/D) is an important feature in music; it mainly arises from the relation of fundamental frequencies (f0) within chords or dyads. The current magnetoencephalography study investigated early cortical and subcortical C/D correlates and their robustness against (1) the physical p...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
March 2026
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| In: |
European journal of neuroscience
Year: 2026, Volume: 63, Issue: 6, Pages: 1-19 |
| ISSN: | 1460-9568 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/ejn.70483 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.70483 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ejn.70483 
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| Author Notes: | Martin Andermann, Anna Louisa Reineke, Helmut Riedel, André Rupp |
| Summary: | Consonance/dissonance (C/D) is an important feature in music; it mainly arises from the relation of fundamental frequencies (f0) within chords or dyads. The current magnetoencephalography study investigated early cortical and subcortical C/D correlates and their robustness against (1) the physical presence of f0 and listener's propensity for f0-based pitch processing, (2) active vs. passive listening, and (3) the listener's musical expertise. A sample of N = 39 normal-hearing adults underwent psychometric testing for individual pitch perception preference and musical aptitude. They also listened to consonant and dissonant dyads with and without physically present f0 while their cortical auditory evoked fields and brainstem-level frequency-following responses (FFRs) were simultaneously recorded, in a paradigm comprising both active- and passive-listening conditions. Consonant dyads elicited earlier transient cortical activity than dissonant dyads and stronger FFRs to the f0 of the high dyad component. Moreover, the C/D-related transient responses evolved comparably for dyads with vs. without f0 and were unchanged by active listening, musical aptitude, or individual pitch perception preference. Active listening, in turn, went with larger amplitudes in the continuous subcortical and cortical activity, reflecting top-down attentional gain. Listeners with more f0-based pitch perception showed worse behavioral performance in dyads with missing f0. Both active listening and the processing of missing f0 information were unrelated to the listener's musical aptitude. Together, our results show how active listening and missing f0 processing are reflected in psychophysiological responses; however, early neural C/D correlates appear largely robust against these variables. |
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| Item Description: | Zuerst veröffentlicht: 24. März 2026 Gesehen am 22.04.2026 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1460-9568 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/ejn.70483 |