Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Superior time perception for lower musical pitch explains why bass-ranged instruments lay down musical rhythms

Michael J. Hove, Céline Marie, Ian C. Bruce, and Laurel J. Trainor
  1. aDepartment of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
  2. bMartinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02129;
  3. cMcMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
  4. dDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1; and
  5. eRotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada M6A 2E1

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS first published June 30, 2014; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1402039111
Michael J. Hove
aDepartment of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
bMartinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02129;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Céline Marie
aDepartment of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
cMcMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ian C. Bruce
cMcMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
dDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1; and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laurel J. Trainor
aDepartment of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
cMcMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
eRotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada M6A 2E1
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ljt@mcmaster.ca
  1. Edited by Dale Purves, Duke University, Durham, NC, and approved June 4, 2014 (received for review February 1, 2014)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

To what extent are musical conventions determined by evolutionarily-shaped human physiology? Across cultures, polyphonic music most often conveys melody in higher-pitched sounds and rhythm in lower-pitched sounds. Here, we show that, when two streams of tones are presented simultaneously, the brain better detects timing deviations in the lower-pitched than in the higher-pitched stream and that tapping synchronization to the tones is more influenced by the lower-pitched stream. Furthermore, our modeling reveals that, with simultaneous sounds, superior encoding of timing for lower sounds and of pitch for higher sounds arises early in the auditory pathway in the cochlea of the inner ear. Thus, these musical conventions likely arise from very basic auditory physiology.

Abstract

The auditory environment typically contains several sound sources that overlap in time, and the auditory system parses the complex sound wave into streams or voices that represent the various sound sources. Music is also often polyphonic. Interestingly, the main melody (spectral/pitch information) is most often carried by the highest-pitched voice, and the rhythm (temporal foundation) is most often laid down by the lowest-pitched voice. Previous work using electroencephalography (EEG) demonstrated that the auditory cortex encodes pitch more robustly in the higher of two simultaneous tones or melodies, and modeling work indicated that this high-voice superiority for pitch originates in the sensory periphery. Here, we investigated the neural basis of carrying rhythmic timing information in lower-pitched voices. We presented simultaneous high-pitched and low-pitched tones in an isochronous stream and occasionally presented either the higher or the lower tone 50 ms earlier than expected, while leaving the other tone at the expected time. EEG recordings revealed that mismatch negativity responses were larger for timing deviants of the lower tones, indicating better timing encoding for lower-pitched compared with higher-pitch tones at the level of auditory cortex. A behavioral motor task revealed that tapping synchronization was more influenced by the lower-pitched stream. Results from a biologically plausible model of the auditory periphery suggest that nonlinear cochlear dynamics contribute to the observed effect. The low-voice superiority effect for encoding timing explains the widespread musical practice of carrying rhythm in bass-ranged instruments and complements previously established high-voice superiority effects for pitch and melody.

  • temporal perception
  • auditory scene analysis
  • rhythmic pulse
  • beat

Footnotes

  • ↵1M.J.H. and C.M. contributed equally to this work.

  • ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ljt{at}mcmaster.ca.
  • Author contributions: M.J.H., C.M., and L.J.T. designed research; M.J.H. and C.M. performed research; M.J.H., C.M., I.C.B., and L.J.T. analyzed data; and M.J.H., C.M., I.C.B., and L.J.T. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1402039111/-/DCSupplemental.

Next
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Superior time perception for lower musical pitch explains why bass-ranged instruments lay down musical rhythms
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Superior time perception for low musical pitch
Michael J. Hove, Céline Marie, Ian C. Bruce, Laurel J. Trainor
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2014, 201402039; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1402039111

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Superior time perception for low musical pitch
Michael J. Hove, Céline Marie, Ian C. Bruce, Laurel J. Trainor
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2014, 201402039; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1402039111
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 118 (15)
Current Issue

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Smoke emanates from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant a few days after tsunami damage
Core Concept: Muography offers a new way to see inside a multitude of objects
Muons penetrate much further than X-rays, they do essentially zero damage, and they are provided for free by the cosmos.
Image credit: Science Source/Digital Globe.
Water from a faucet fills a glass.
News Feature: How “forever chemicals” might impair the immune system
Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Venus flytrap captures a fly.
Journal Club: Venus flytrap mechanism could shed light on how plants sense touch
One protein seems to play a key role in touch sensitivity for flytraps and other meat-eating plants.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Kuttelvaserova Stuchelova.
Illustration of groups of people chatting
Exploring the length of human conversations
Adam Mastroianni and Daniel Gilbert explore why conversations almost never end when people want them to.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490