The Role of (Missing) Fundamentals, Active Listening, and Musical Expertise in Cortical and Subcortical Correlates of Consonance/Dissonance

Consonance/dissonance (C/D) is an important feature in music; it mainly arises from the relation of fundamental frequencies (f₀) within chords or dyads. The current magnetoencephalography study investigated early cortical and subcortical C/D correlates and their robustness against (1) the physical presence of f₀ and listener's propensity for f₀-based pitch processing, (2) active vs. passive listening, and (3) the listener's musical expertise. A sample of N = 39 normal-hearing adults underwent psychometric testing for individual pitch perception preference and musical aptitude. They also listened to consonant and dissonant dyads with and without physically present f₀ while their cortical auditory evoked fields and brainstem-level frequency-following responses (FFRs) were simultaneously recorded, in a paradigm comprising both active- and passive-listening conditions. Consonant dyads elicited earlier transient cortical activity than dissonant dyads and stronger FFRs to the f₀ of the high dyad component. Moreover, the C/D-related transient responses evolved comparably for dyads with vs. without f₀ and were unchanged by active listening, musical aptitude, or individual pitch perception preference. Active listening, in turn, went with larger amplitudes in the continuous subcortical and cortical activity, reflecting top-down attentional gain. Listeners with more f₀-based pitch perception showed worse behavioral performance in dyads with missing f₀. Both active listening and the processing of missing f₀ information were unrelated to the listener's musical aptitude. Together, our results show how active listening and missing f₀ processing are reflected in psychophysiological responses; however, early neural C/D correlates appear largely robust against these variables.