Brainstem correlates of behavioral and compositional preferences of musical harmony

Certain chords are preferred by listeners behaviorally and also occur with higher regularity in musical composition. Event-related potentials index the perceived consonance (i.e., pleasantness) of musical pitch relationships providing a cortical neural correlate for such behavioral preferences. Here, we show correlates of these harmonic preferences exist at subcortical stages of audition. Brainstem frequency-following responses were measured in response to four prototypical musical triads. Pitch salience computed from frequency-following responses correctly predicted the ordering of triadic harmony stipulated by music theory (i.e., major \u3eminor \u3e\u3ediminished \u3eaugmented). Moreover, neural response magnitudes showed high correspondence with listeners\u27 perceptual ratings of the same chords. Results suggest that preattentive stages of pitch processing may contribute to perceptual judgments of musical harmony. © 2011 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins