PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Robert Jagiello
AU  - Ulrich Pomper
AU  - Makoto Yoneya
AU  - Sijia Zhao
AU  - Maria Chait
TI  - Rapid Brain Responses to Familiar vs. Unfamiliar Music – an EEG and Pupillometry study
AID  - 10.1101/466359
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 466359
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/08/466359.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/08/466359.full
AB  - When listening to music, we are able to identify well-known songs as familiar within fractions of a second. However, as of now it is unclear how fast the brain can differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar music, and what the underlying neural correlates are. Here, we used electro-encephalography (EEG) and pupillometry to reveal the temporal signatures of neural processes that allow differentiation between familiar and unfamiliar music. Participants passively listened to 750 ms snippets of familiar songs as well as of acoustically matched control songs, presented in random order. We observed greater pupil dilation rates to familiar music from 100-300 ms post stimulus onset. Brain responses measured with EEG showed a differentiation between familiar and unfamiliar music from 350 ms post onset, but in the opposite direction to that seen with pupillometry: Unfamiliar snippets were associated with greater responses than familiar snippets. A group of control participants, which was presented with the same song snippets but was unfamiliar with all of the songs, showed no such differences. Possible underlying mechanisms are discussed.This research was supported by a EC Horizon 2020 grant and a BBSRC international partnering award to MC.