Abstract
We measured evoked magnetic fields from the brain to compare the stationary state responses in magnetoencephalography to musical chords which were sinusoidally modulated in amplitude. The modulation frequency was 20 Hz throughout the experiments. In experiment 1, major and minor chords were presented in random order in one experimental run and the averaged evoked responses were analyzed for their 20 Hz components by FFT. Minor chords gave larger responses than major chords although the difference did not reach significance. In experiment 2, diminished and augmented chords were additionally used and all the 4 chords were presented in random order in two experimental runs. The ASSR amplitudes to the 4 chords decreased according to the desceinding order: augmented, diminished, minor and major. The difference was significant between ASSRs to augmented and major chords.
