Musical experience and auditory P300 in a divided attention task

Author(s): Berman, B., Atkin, A., Roth, R. M.

Journal/Book: Brain Cognition. 1996; 30: 525B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495. Academic Press Inc Jnl-Comp Subscriptions. 378-380.

Abstract: Recent investigations have demonstrated significant differences in P300 amplitude between musicians and non-musicians in oddball tasks. We compared Musicians (n = 5) with at minimum 5 years of formal musical training (piano) and one concert performance, to Non-Musicians (n = 5) with no prior musical training on a binaural listening ERP task in which they were required to detect rare high-pitched deviant tones (10%) among low-pitched frequent tones (1000 Hz) occurring randomly in both ears. Difficulty of pitch discrimination was manipulated by using 1128-Hz (EASY) and 1028-Hz (HARD) targets in separate blocks. Results revealed that Musicians had larger P300 amplitudes to tar ets presented to their right ear than Non-Musicians. P300 amplitude was also larger for Musicians than Non-Musicians at a left (C3) but not at a right (C4) hemisphere electrode. Results support both previous P300 findings and findings of hemispheric differences in auditory processing between musicians and non-musicians.

Note: Article J Baribeau, Concordia Univ, Lab Human Neurophysiol & Neuropsychol, Dept Psychol, Room DS-413-38, Montreal, Pq H4B 1R6, Canada

Keyword(s): EAR

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