Figure 3.

Musicians show enhanced pitch encoding of chordal thirds in response to both prototypical (A) and detuned (B–C) arpeggios. Pitch encoding is defined as the spectral magnitude of F0 measured from FFR responses. (A) Within both groups, no differences are seen between F0 magnitudes for the major and minor third, likely due to their overabundance in Western music. Yet, musicians show enhanced representation for these defining musical notes relative to their non-musician counterparts. When the third of the chord is slightly sharp (+4 %) or flat (−4%) relative to the major and minor third, musicians show invariance in their encoding, representing detuned notes as well as the tempered pitches (B and C). In contrast, non-musicians show marked decrease in representation of F0 when the chord is detuned from the standard major or minor prototype. F0, fundamental frequency; FFR, frequency-following response.