Measuring engagement with music: development of an informant-report questionnaire.

OBJECTIVES: This study describes the development of the Music Engagement Questionnaire (MusEQ), a 35-item scale to measure engagement with music in daily life. Music has implications for well-being and for therapy, notably for individuals living with dementia. A number of excellent scales or questionnaires are now available to measure music engagement. Unlike these scales, the MusEQ may be completed by either the participant or an informant. METHOD: Study 1 drew on a community-based sample of 391 participants. Exploratory factor analysis revealed six interpretable factors, which formed the basis for construction of six subscales. Study 2 applied the MusEQ to a group of participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 16) as well as a group of neurotypical older adults (OA; n = 16). Informants completed the MusEQ, and the OA group also completed the self-report version of the MusEQ. Both groups had an interview in which they described the place music had in their lives. These interviews were scored by three independent raters. RESULTS: The MusEQ showed excellent internal consistency. Five of the factor-derived subscales showed good or excellent internal consistency. MusEQ scores were moderately correlated with a global rating of 'musicality' and with music education. There was strong agreement between self-report and informant-report data. MusEQ scores showed a significant positive relationship to independent ratings of music engagement. CONCLUSION: The MusEQ provides a meaningful and reliable option for measuring music engagement among participants who are unable to complete a self-report questionnaire.

Familiarity and preference for pitch probability profiles.

We investigated familiarity and preference judgments of participants toward a novel musical system. We exposed participants to tone sequences generated from a novel pitch probability profile. Afterward, we either asked participants to identify more familiar or we asked participants to identify preferred tone sequences in a two-alternative forced-choice task. The task paired a tone sequence generated from the pitch probability profile they had been exposed to and a tone sequence generated from another pitch probability profile at three levels of distinctiveness. We found that participants identified tone sequences as more familiar if they were generated from the same pitch probability profile which they had been exposed to. However, participants did not prefer these tone sequences. We interpret this relationship between familiarity and preference to be consistent with an inverted U-shaped relationship between knowledge and affect. The fact that participants identified tone sequences as even more familiar if they were generated from the more distinctive (caricatured) version of the pitch probability profile which they had been exposed to suggests that the statistical learning of the pitch probability profile is involved in gaining of musical knowledge.

Electrophysiological and behavioral indicators of musical knowledge about unfamiliar music.

Most listeners possess sophisticated knowledge about the music around them without being aware of it or its intricacies. Previous research shows that we develop such knowledge through exposure. This knowledge can then be assessed using behavioral and neurophysiological measures. It remains unknown however, which neurophysiological measures accompany the development of musical long-term knowledge. In this series of experiments, we first identified a potential ERP marker of musical long-term knowledge by comparing EEG activity following musically unexpected and expected tones within the context of known music (n = 30). We then validated the marker by showing that it does not differentiate between such tones within the context of unknown music (n = 34). In a third experiment, we exposed participants to unknown music (n = 40) and compared EEG data before and after exposure to explore effects of time. Although listeners' behavior indicated musical long-term knowledge, we did not find any effects of time on the ERP marker. Instead, the relationship between behavioral and EEG data suggests musical long-term knowledge may have formed before we could confirm its presence through behavioral measures. Listeners are thus not only knowledgeable about music but seem to also be incredibly fast music learners.

The role of duration and frequency of occurrence in perceived pitch structure.

INTRODUCTION: To survive, organisms need to organize perceptual input into coherent, usable structures. Research has illuminated the potential role of frequency of occurrence and duration as cues to extract statistical regularities from our environment. Musical stimuli provide a unique opportunity to study how these cues are used to organize auditory input into higher level perceptual entities, i.e., pitch structure, and to assess the influence of cognitive schema. METHODS: To examine the relative importance of these two cues in pitch structure perception, we constructed novel tone sequences in which frequency of occurrence and duration cues were pitted against each other. We assessed perceived pitch structure in musically trained and untrained listeners using a probe tone paradigm. RESULTS: In all experiments, a 3-tiered hierarchy of pitch structure emerged, with highest ratings for tones of longer duration, next highest for shorter, more frequent tones and lowest for probe tones that did not occur in the sequence. The hierarchy did not reflect assimilation to Western tonal schema. DISCUSSION: Our results argue against theories positing the same mechanism for the processing of duration and frequency of occurrence, and that duration is weighted preferentially. We further suggest that the organization of perceptual information will proceed according to whatever information is relevant, available, and most easily acquired.

Emotional intelligence, not music training, predicts recognition of emotional speech prosody.

Is music training associated with greater sensitivity to emotional prosody in speech? University undergraduates (n = 100) were asked to identify the emotion conveyed in both semantically neutral utterances and melodic analogues that preserved the fundamental frequency contour and intensity pattern of the utterances. Utterances were expressed in four basic emotional tones (anger, fear, joy, sadness) and in a neutral condition. Participants also completed an extended questionnaire about music education and activities, and a battery of tests to assess emotional intelligence, musical perception and memory, and fluid intelligence. Emotional intelligence, not music training or music perception abilities, successfully predicted identification of intended emotion in speech and melodic analogues. The ability to recognize cues of emotion accurately and efficiently across domains may reflect the operation of a cross-modal processor that does not rely on gains of perceptual sensitivity such as those related to music training.

Short and long term representation of an unfamiliar tone distribution.

We report on a study conducted to extend our knowledge about the process of gaining a mental representation of music. Several studies, inspired by research on the statistical learning of language, have investigated statistical learning of sequential rules underlying tone sequences. Given that the mental representation of music correlates with distributional properties of music, we tested whether participants are able to abstract distributional information contained in tone sequences to form a mental representation. For this purpose, we created an unfamiliar music genre defined by an underlying tone distribution, to which 40 participants were exposed. Our stimuli allowed us to differentiate between sensitivity to the distributional properties contained in test stimuli and long term representation of the distributional properties of the music genre overall. Using a probe tone paradigm and a two-alternative forced choice discrimination task, we show that listeners are able to abstract distributional properties of music through mere exposure into a long term representation of music. This lends support to the idea that statistical learning is involved in the process of gaining musical knowledge.

Musical difficulties are rare: a study of "tone deafness" among university students.

This study was concerned with self-reported "tone deafness" and its possible relationship to congenital amusia. Nearly 17% of over 2,000 first-year psychology students at Queen's University self-reported tone deafness. Two hundred students were recruited from this pool of students, comprising 100 who reported tone deafness and 100 who reported that they were not tone-deaf (NTD). The study contained two parts. In part 1, participants completed the six tests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) developed by Peretz and collaborators. In part 2, participants completed an extensive questionnaire designed to elicit details about musical experiences, abilities, training, and interests. Twenty-eight questionnaire items allowing a quantitative response were subjected to factor analysis. Four orthogonal components emerged from the analysis. The components reflected self-report of (1) vocal production, (2) music instruction, (3) listening attitudes, and (4) childhood memories of musical environment. Results for each of the MBEA tests and composite scores for all tests were regressed on participants' factor scores. The best and significant predictors of the MBEA scores were factor I and factor II, followed by factor III. Factor scores accounted for a higher percentage of the variance in MBEA composite test results (27%) than the self-report of tone deafness alone (7%). The musical difficulties revealed by the MBEA test results for some participants warrant further attention and study. However, an encouraging conclusion from the MBEA results is that many individuals who consider themselves "tone-deaf" may not, in fact, have perceptual difficulties, and these individuals should be supported in any of their efforts to proceed with music enjoyment and instruction.

Music, memory, and Alzheimer's disease: is music recognition spared in dementia, and how can it be assessed?

Despite intriguing and suggestive clinical observations, no formal research has assessed the possible sparing of musical recognition and memory in Alzheimer's dementia (AD). A case study is presented of an 84-year old woman with severe cognitive impairment implicating AD, but for whom music recognition and memory, according to her caregivers, appeared to be spared. The hypotheses addressed were, first, that memory for familiar music may be spared in dementia, and second, that musical recognition and memory may be reliably assessed with existing tests if behavioral observation is employed to overcome the problem of verbal or written communication. Our hypotheses were stimulated by the patient EN, for whom diagnosis of AD became probable in 2000. With severe problems in memory, language, and cognition, she now has a mini-mental status score of 8 (out of 30) and is unable to understand or recall standard instructions. In order to assess her music recognition abilities, three tests from the previous literature were adapted for behavioral observation. Two tests involved the discrimination of familiar melodies from unfamiliar melodies. The third involved the detection of distortions ("wrong" notes) in familiar melodies and discrimination of distorted melodies from melodies correctly reproduced. Test melodies were presented to EN on a CD player and her responses were observed by two test administrators. EN responded to familiar melodies by singing along, usually with the words, and often continuing to sing after the stimulus had stopped. She never responded to the unfamiliar melodies. She responded to distorted melodies with facial expressions - surprise, laughter, a frown, or an exclamation, "Oh, dear!"; she never responded in this way to the undistorted melodies. Allowing these responses as indicators of detection, the results for EN were in the normal or near normal range of scores for elderly controls. As well, lyrics to familiar melodies, spoken in a conversational voice without rhythmic or pitch clues, often prompted EN to sing the tune that correctly accompanied the lyrics. EN's results provide encouraging support for our hypotheses that sparing of musical memory may be a feature of some forms of dementia and that it may be reliably and quantitatively assessed through behavioral observation. The contrast between EN's response to music and her mini-mental status is dramatic. The article concludes with several considerations why music may be preserved in dementia and suggestions to guide future research.

Preservation of musical memory and engagement in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease.

In striking contrast to the difficulties with new learning and episodic memories in aging and especially in Alzheimer's disease (AD), musical long-term memories appear to be largely preserved. Evidence for spared musical memories in aging and AD is reviewed here. New data involve the development of a Musical Engagement Questionnaire especially designed for use with AD patients. The questionnaire assesses behavioral responses to music and is answered by the care partner. Current results show that, despite cognitive loss, persons with mild to moderate AD preserve musical engagement and music seeking. Familiar music evokes personal autobiographical memories for healthy younger and older adults as well and for those with mild to moderate AD. It is argued that music is a prime candidate for being a stimulus for cognitive stimulation because musical memories and associated emotions may be readily evoked; that is, they are strong and do not need to be repaired. Working with and through music as a resource may enhance social and communication functions.

An fMRI comparison of neural activity associated with recognition of familiar melodies in younger and older adults.

Several studies of semantic memory in non-musical domains involving recognition of items from long-term memory have shown an age-related shift from the medial temporal lobe structures to the frontal lobe. However, the effects of aging on musical semantic memory remain unexamined. We compared activation associated with recognition of familiar melodies in younger and older adults. Recognition follows successful retrieval from the musical lexicon that comprises a lifetime of learned musical phrases. We used the sparse-sampling technique in fMRI to determine the neural correlates of melody recognition by comparing activation when listening to familiar vs. unfamiliar melodies, and to identify age differences. Recognition-related cortical activation was detected in the right superior temporal, bilateral inferior and superior frontal, left middle orbitofrontal, bilateral precentral, and left supramarginal gyri. Region-of-interest analysis showed greater activation for younger adults in the left superior temporal gyrus and for older adults in the left superior frontal, left angular, and bilateral superior parietal regions. Our study provides powerful evidence for these musical memory networks due to a large sample (N = 40) that includes older adults. This study is the first to investigate the neural basis of melody recognition in older adults and to compare the findings to younger adults.

Do conjunction errors in auditory recognition imply feature migration?

It has recently been proposed that the feature values (e.g., pitch, duration, etc.) of tones are processed in separate perceptual channels and are later reintegrated to form the experience of a unitary percept. Patterns of errors in recognizing combinations of auditory features have been taken as failures of, and thus evidence for, an auditory feature-integration process. We outline an alternative interpretation of these effects based on similarity structure of the stimuli.

Musical memory in Alzheimer disease.

This study examines musical memory in 12 patients with moderate or severe AD and 12 healthy, older adult controls. Participants were asked to distinguish familiar from novel tunes, to identify distortions in melodies, and to sing familiar tunes. Comparison of the AD and control groups showed significant impairment of the AD participants. However, a more complex picture emerged as we compared each individual case to the control group. Five of the AD group performed within the control group range on most tasks. An additional four participants showed partial sparing in that they performed below the range of control participants, but their scores were above the level of chance. The final three participants showed near complete loss of musical memory, as their performance was consistently at or near the level of chance. These results are discussed in terms of the literature on the heterogeneity of cognitive presentation in AD.

Exceptional preservation of memory for tunes and lyrics: case studies of amusia, profound deafness, and Alzheimer's disease.

Four elderly persons with neurologic impairments of differing etiology and differing cognitive profiles presented unexpected patterns of memory for tunes and song lyrics. Impairments included profound deafness, right-hemisphere stroke, and dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Patterns for the impaired individuals differed according to the disorder, but each person had some scores within the range for 90 healthy seniors. We suggest implications for models of brain organization for musical memory.

Sensitivity to tonality across the pitch range.

Striking changes in sensitivity to tonality across the pitch range are reported. Participants were presented a key-defining context (do-mi-do-sol) followed by one of the 12 chromatic tones of the octave, and rated the goodness of fit of the probe tone to the context. The set of ratings, called the probe-tone profile, was compared to an established standardised profile for the Western tonal hierarchy. The presentation of context and probe tones at low and high pitch registers resulted in significantly reduced sensitivity to tonality. Sensitivity was especially poor for presentations in the lowest octaves where inharmonicity levels were substantially above the threshold for detection. We propose that sensitivity to tonality may be influenced by pitch salience (or a co-varying factor such as exposure to pitch distributional information) as well as suprathreshold inharmonicity.

Detection of metric structure in auditory figural patterns.

This series of experiments dealt with discrimination between two temporal patterns differing only by the insertion of an additional silent gap. In Experiment 1, patterns varied in metric and figural structure. Metric structure is described as the sense of temporal regularity that may occur between subjectively accented tones. Figural structure is described as the grouping of temporally adjacent tones separated by silences. Standard patterns were either strongly or weakly metric; comparison patterns differed from the standards by the insertion of a silence that disrupted either the metric structure alone or both the metric and the figural structures. Experiment 1 provided support for the roles of both metric and figural structures and provided support for the clock-induction model of Povel and Essens (1985) as an account of metric processing. In Experiments 2-4, discrimination of patterns with differing metric structures but identical figural structures was examined more closely. Rate of presentation of the patterns was varied. Multiple regression indicated that, independent of rate variations, discrimination improved as the absolute (not relative) duration of the silent gap increased. We argue that an additional timing mechanism, independent of pattern structure, is operative in temporal pattern discrimination. All the results were replicated across levels of music training of the listeners.

A case of impaired auditory and visual speech prosody perception after right hemisphere damage.

It is well established that vision plays a role in segmental speech perception, but the role of vision in prosodic speech perception is less clear. We report on the difficulties in prosodic speech perception encountered by KB after a right hemisphere stroke. In addition to musical deficits, KB was suspected of having impaired auditory prosody perception. As expected, KB was impaired on two prosody perception tasks in an auditory-only condition. We also examined whether the addition of visual prosody cues would facilitate his performance on these tasks. Unexpectedly, KB was also impaired on both tasks under visual-only and audio-visual conditions. Thus, there was no evidence that KB could integrate auditory and visual prosody information or that he could use visual cues to compensate for his deficit in the auditory domain. In contrast, KB was able to identify segmental speech information using visual cues and to use these visual cues to improve his performance when auditory segmental cues were impoverished. KB was also able to integrate audio-visual segmental information in the McGurk effect. Thus, KB's visual deficit was specific to prosodic speech perception and, to our knowledge, this is the first reported case of such a deficit.

Impaired processing of prosodic and musical patterns after right hemisphere damage.

The distinction between the processing of musical information and segmental speech information (i.e., consonants and vowels) has been much explored. In contrast, the relationship between the processing of music and prosodic speech information (e.g., intonation) has been largely ignored. We report an assessment of prosodic perception for an amateur musician, KB, who became amusic following a right-hemisphere stroke. Relative to matched controls, KB's segmental speech perception was preserved. However, KB was unable to discriminate pitch or rhythm patterns in linguistic or musical stimuli. He was also impaired on prosodic perception tasks (e.g., discriminating statements from questions). Results are discussed in terms of common neural mechanisms that may underlie the processing of some aspects of both music and speech prosody.