Early integration of vowel and pitch processing: A mismatch negativity study

OBJECTIVE: Several studies have explored the processing specificity of music and speech, but only a few have addressed the processing autonomy of their fundamental components: pitch and phonemes. Here, we examined the additivity of the mismatch negativity (MMN) indexing the early interactions between vowels and pitch when sung. METHODS: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants heard frequent sung vowels and rare stimuli …