Pitch Coding in Vocalists and Non Musicians to Carnatic Music Stimuli: A Frequency Following Response (FFR) Study

Abstract

Objective: The current study investigates pitch coding among Vocalists and Non Musicians for Carnatic Music stimuli. Method: Two groups of participants were included in the study. First group consisted of 15 trained Carnatic Vocalists in the age range of 18-45 years while the second group consisted of 15 Non musicians. Two types of stimuli were recorded. The first stimulus consisted of three notes of a Carnatic raga (S R2 G3) sung by a trained vocalist. The second stimulus consisted of three notes of a Carnatic raga (S R2 G3) played on violin by a trained violinist. Frequency following responses (FFR) was recorded binaurally at 80dBSPL for both stimuli using neuroscan equipment. Results: Grand average responses of all participants were generated. To assess participants pitch tracking to the Carnatic music stimuli, stimulus to response correlation, pitch strength and pitch error were calculated. Results revealed that Vocalists had better stimulus to response correlation and pitch strength values with lower pitch error values than non musicians for both vocal and instrumental stimuli. Within the Vocalist group, superior performance was noticed for vocal stimulus compared to instrumental stimuli. No such preference was evident amongst the non musicians. Conclusions: Classical music training leads to better representation of pitch in the auditory brainstem.