It's my understanding that... Octane is a measure of fuel's resistance to detonation (aka pinging or dieseling) caused by the rise in temperature associated with compressing an air fuel/mixture (or any substance in a gaseous state). That is, the higher the octane rating, the higher the compression ratio the air/fuel mixture can endure before compressional heat causes ignition of said air/fuel mixture. Higher compression gasoline engines _require_ higher octane gasoline so that the air/fuel mixture may be compressed without detonation before the spark plug induces ignition. Lower compression engines gain no benefit from using gasoline with a higher octane rating.
Furthermore, I know that the some "power programmers" will adjust things like injector pulse width and ignition timing to increase horse power and torque, but those changes usually require gasoline with a higher octane than the stock program to prevent compressional detonation.
Therefore, please explain to me the situations and reasons why a V-10 (or any other gasoline engine designated by the manufacturer as requiring 87 octane gasoline) can benefit from higher octane gasoline.