• Xiaochen Zhang and Qin Gong.
• Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
• Neuroscience. 2021 Sep 15; 472: 68-89.

AbstractSubcortical auditory nuclei contribute to pitch perception, but how subcortical sound encoding is related to pitch processing for music perception remains unclear. Conventionally, enhanced subcortical sound encoding is considered underlying superior pitch discrimination. However, associations between superior auditory perception and the context-dependent plasticity of subcortical sound encoding are also documented. Here, we explored the subcortical neural correlates to music pitch perception by analyzing frequency-following responses (FFRs) to musical sounds presented in a predictable context and a random context. We found that the FFR inter-trial phase-locking (ITPL) was negatively correlated with behavioral performances of discrimination of pitches in music melodies. It was also negatively correlated with the plasticity indices measuring the variability of FFRs to physically identical sounds between the two contexts. The plasticity indices were consistently positively correlated with pitch discrimination performances, suggesting the subcortical context-dependent plasticity underlying music pitch perception. Moreover, the raw FFR spectral strength was not significantly correlated with pitch discrimination performances. However, it was positively correlated with behavioral performances when the FFR ITPL was controlled by partial correlations, suggesting that the strength of subcortical sound encoding underlies music pitch perception. When the spectral strength was controlled by partial correlations, the negative ITPL-behavioral correlations were maintained. Furthermore, the FFR ITPL, the plasticity indices, and the FFR spectral strength were more correlated with pitch than with rhythm discrimination performances. These findings suggest that the context-dependent plasticity and the strength of subcortical encoding of musical sounds are independently and perhaps specifically associated with pitch perception for music melodies.Copyright © 2021 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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