Although major and minor scales differ in only one or two notes, and those only by a semitone, musician and nonmusician listeners alike reliably map major to happy and minor to sad (Crowder, 1985). In Western music, composers often use major modes to indicate happy moods ( Happy Birthday) and minor modes to indicate sadder or more contemplative moods ( Greensleeves). These findings support the hypothesis that musical training may enhance the neural response to the information content of critical note in a minor scale but not the neural response to the emotional content of a melody. Furthermore, there were no differences in prefrontal asymmetry in the alpha or beta bands during the critical notes. This response was sufficient to classify participants based on their musical training group. Although there was no evidence of an LPC response to a second occurrence of the critical note in either group, there was a strong early right anterior negativity response in the inferior frontal gyrus in musicians in response to the first critical note in the minor mode. Importantly, we also extend this finding to examine additional neural correlates of critical notes in a melody. The current study replicates the presence of a late positive component (LPC) to the minor melody in musicians only. Musical training is required for individuals to correctly label musical modes using the terms “major” and “minor,” whereas no training is required to label these modes as “happy” or “sad.” Despite the high accuracy of nonmusicians in happy/sad labeling, previous research suggests that these individuals may exhibit differences in the neural response to the critical note-the note (the third of the relevant key) that defines a melody as major or minor.
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