The steady-state response of the cerebral cortex to the beat of music reflects both the comprehension of music and attention

摘要: The brain's analyses of speech and music share a range neural resources mechanisms. Music displays temporal structure complexity similar to that speech, unfolds over comparable timescales, elicits cognitive demands in tasks involving comprehension attention. During processing, synchronized activity the cerebral cortex delta theta frequency bands tracks envelope signal, this is modulated by high-level cortical functions such as It remains unclear, however, whether also responds natural rhythmic how response, if present, influenced higher processes. Here we employ electroencephalography (EEG) show beat steady-state response reflects musical We weaker when subjects listen familiar tune than they an unfamiliar, nonsensical piece. Furthermore, task intermodal attention there larger at attend stimulus ignore auditory signal instead focus on visual one. Our findings may be applied clinical assessments processing cognition well construction brain-machine interfaces.