News Finding: This difference, the researchers say, may suggest that non-musicians are unable to process the music as a continuous melody rather than as individual notes.
Paper Finding: What we consider intriguing is that this sensorimotor network, with a primary function in rhythmic processing, affects performance on a nonrhythmic task.
News Context: Only musicians, however, showed oscillations that synchronized with unusually slow clips. This difference, the researchers say, may suggest that non-musicians are unable to process the music as a continuous melody rather than as individual notes. Moreover, musicians much more accurately detected pitch distortions--as evidenced by corresponding cortical oscillations.
Paper Context: Plausibly, then, music-with its inherent rhythmicity-also drives this system. What we consider intriguing is that this sensorimotor network, with a primary function in rhythmic processing, affects performance on a nonrhythmic task. We suggest two possible explanations: first, beta oscillations predict only timing, as previously suggested , and, in making accurate predictions, facilitate other mechanisms to process pitch content; or second, more provocatively, beta oscillations contain specific predictions not only of when but also of what.