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Re: Absolute pitch discussion



Dear Martin et al,


Concerning your statement:

we do not even have the faintest trace of a hypothesis how a brain could accomplish RP.

please see 

Deutsch, D. Music recognition.  Psychological Review , 1969, 76,  300-309. [PDF Document

for a proposed neural network that would accomplish recognition of musical intervals and chords under transposition and inversion, together with a discussion of the relevant neurophysiological evidence that existed at that time.

See also my chapter 'The processing of pitch combinations' in Deutsch, D. (Ed.) The Psychology of Music. 2nd Edition. San Diego: Academic Press, 1999 which revisits this model with updated references, together with the chapter 'Neural nets, temporal composites, and tonality' by Jamshed Bharucha in the same volume. 

Further at the neurophysiological level, please  also see the work of the Gerald Langner on the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus.

Diana

----------------------------------------------
Professor Diana Deutsch
Department of Psychology                          
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr. #0109            
La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA

858-453-1558 (tel)
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On Sep 8, 2007, at 8:24 AM, Martin Braun wrote:

Dear Henkjan and list:

..... in the end we have to also see that Relative Pitch is far more
special. While we might share AP with some animals, RP is far less common,
arguably making AP in humans less special.

I fully agree. RP is a much bigger challenge for neuroscience than AP is. To
my knowledge, we do not even have the faintest trace of a hypothesis how a
brain could accomplish RP.

Martin

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Braun
Neuroscience of Music
S-671 95 Klässbol
Sweden



----- Original Message ----- From: "Henkjan Honing" <honing@xxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: Absolute pitch discussion


Although I have to be modest in my claims, not being an expert in
pitch, I find AP actually not such a special phenomenon. Although we
could agree in dividing the phenomenon in degrees, or levels of
preciseness on a more continuous scale, in the end we have to also
see that Relative Pitch is far more special. While we might share AP
with some animals, RP is far less common, arguably making AP in
humans less special.

hh


Dr H. Honing
Universiteit van Amsterdam


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