The Cognitive Ability Of Spatial Processing In Amusics:an ERPs Research

Background:Congenital amusia is a group of people that lack of the pitch processing ability. It is a lifelong disorder characterized by a difficulty in perceiving, or making sense of music. It is estimated to occur in around4%of the general population. People with amusia have normal living skills, however, it may indicate an underlying anomalous structure of brain which is worth to be research. There is a link between pitch and space. One possible higher-order representational structure for musical pitch is spatial. Nevertheless, whether amusia is associated with deficits in spatial processing is controversial.Objective:Based on the above statements, whether the deficit in music perception has already extend to space, is still in the air. Therefore, the present study, by comparing amusics with matched controls, will try to find out the mechanism of spatial processing in amusics and provide a electrophysiological basis for it.Methods:The groups of amusia and control are selected after MBEA. Then using event-related potential technique, we assessed whether the amusics have difficulties in mental rotation task by analyzing the behavioral data and electrophysiological index.Results:There are18in amusics and27in controls. The results reveal the absence of interactions of Group and other within-participants factors in both the analysis of RTs and the accuracy(P>0.05). There was no effect of Group either(P>0.05). For both accuracy and response times, these analyses confirmed the main effect of degree of rotation(p<0.05). As to ERPs results, we also failed to find the effect of Group in the amplitude of P300. According to the scalp topography, the amplitude of Pz electrode is higher than P3and P4.Conclusions:(1) Amusics’ performance instead exhibited the typical effect of rotation angle that is found in healthy participants, hence indicating normal construction and spatial transformation of visuo-spatial objects.(2) The cognitive neural mechanism of spatial processing in amusics is consistent with normal individuals.(3) The central parietal cerebrum undertook more cognitive load in the spatial processing.