A recent study suggests that musical consonance is based on harmonicity, a preference that reflects the central role of harmonicity in auditory perception.

The similarity of musical scales and consonance judgments across human populations has no generally accepted explanation. Here we present evidence that these aspects of auditory perception arise from the statistical structure of naturally occurring periodic sound stimuli. An analysis of speech sounds, the principal source of periodic sound stimuli in the human acoustical environment, shows that...

Cortical processes underlying perception of musical consonance were investigated by long-latency auditory evoked potentials (EPs). Subjects listened to a random sequence of dyadic pure tones paired at various pitch intervals (1, 4, 6, 7, or 9 semitones). Amplitudes of P2 and N2 components of auditory EPs were significantly modulated by pitch interval of the dyads, being most negative for 1 semi...