Methods: The experiment was designed using event-related potential technique, following the
S1/S2 paradigm, and dividing into two arms according to the Gong tone being played in harmonics
or open strings. For each arm, S1 was the playing of the Gong tone, followed by S2,
where subjects, based on their first reaction, were required to make a yes/no judgement to
whether the tone matches to a randomly-picked color out of the five colors. During this process,
the event-related potentials were recorded.
Results: Gong tone played in harmonics, most participants matched it with black and cyan;
while in the open strings arm, most matched it with black. The average amplitudes of P300
at PZ, FZ, and CZ points were compared. For the Gong tone played in harmonics, there was
a significant difference between those who matched it with black and those who did otherwise
(P <.01). There was also a significant difference between those who matched it with cyan and
those who did otherwise (P <.01). For the open strings arm, there was a significant difference
between those who matched it with black and those who did otherwise (P < .01).
Conclusion: Our comparison of the average amplitudes of P300 suggests a commonality in the
neural mechanism underlying categorical thinking that is not fundamentally altered by playing
style. However, behavioral theory suggests that playing style does have an influence on categorization.
The Gong tone can be matched with any of the five colors, which accords with the
thought of central Earth in the five-element theory. This provides evidence of the similarity