Listen, Learn, Like! Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Involved in the Mere Exposure Effect in Music

Table 1

Experimental procedure. Overview of the five main phases of the experimental procedure, divided into phases before and after familiarisation with the melodies. For each phase is listed its main purpose, where it took place (in the MRI scanner or not), the central stimuli used, the task of the participant in relation to these stimuli, and a note about which figures and tables relate to each phase.

Exp.; phase		Primary; purpose	Location; (in/outside scanner)	Task	Main stimuli	Related; figures/tables
A	Before; familiarisation	Familiarise participant with rating task	Outside	Rate liking	18 comparable melodies	Figure 1: stimulus examples
B		Induce graded implicit learning of melodies	Outside	Identify detuned notes	18 melodies, identical to phase A; amount of exposure systematically varied in 3 increments; (2, 8, or 32 times)	—
C	After; familiarisation	Obtain liking rating for each melody and Record brain activity	Scanner	Rate liking	24 melodies: the 18 from phase A/B, plus 6 new	Figure 2: liking rating as function of exposure Figure 4 and Table 2: brain regions related to liking Figure 5 and Table 2: brain regions related to exposure
D		Obtain recognition rating for each melody	Scanner	Rate recognition	30 melodies: the 24 from phase C, plus 6 new	Figure 3: recognition rating as function of exposure
E		Confirm equal musical abilities among participants	Outside	Pitch and rhythm tests	—	—