Musical Structure Influences the Perception of Sound Location

The perception of multilayered auditory stimuli, such as music or speech, relies on the integration of progressively more complex and abstract features as they are processed along the auditory pathway. To investigate whether higher-level musical structure modulates auditory perception or merely the interpretation of perceived information, we examined the interaction between sound location—a low-level feature—and musical phrases, which are structures spanning across seconds and require temporal integration of information within continuous stimuli. This was to observe whether musical phrase boundaries modulate pre-attentive and explicit sensitivity to the location changes. Participants listened to melodies with randomized location changes and either actively reported detection of change or passively listened while EEG data were collected. Analysis of mismatch negativity responses revealed significantly larger amplitudes for location changes occurring at phrase boundaries, suggesting that musical grouping enhances the perceptual salience of these changes, conveyed by physically identical cues. Behaviorally, participants showed no difference in sensitivity but were more likely to report location changes at phrase boundaries, even when no change occurred. These findings demonstrate that higher-level musical structure modulates pre-attentive auditory processing and influences perception of spatial location. This effect appears to rely on fundamental auditory mechanisms rather than musical expertise, highlighting the dynamic interaction between abstract musical structure and low-level sensory processing.