The neural networks of music

Abstract

Recent neuropsychological, transcranial Doppler sonographic, positron emission tomographic and functional nuclear magnetic resonance studies have indicated that musical perception is not dependent on the right hemisphere but on neural networks corresponding to the fundamental components of music in both hemispheres. In the brain there is no centre for music. Musicians have cerebral characteristics, anatomical as well as functional, which are correlated with the age at which they began their musical studies. This argues for cortical reorganization as a result of musical training. Whether these characteristics are to be ascribed to cortical plasticity alone, or to an innate structural property, or to both, remains an open question, however. Investigation of chromosomal defects, biochemical abnormalities and morphological features of congenital and degenerative brain diseases can provide further insight into the cerebral substrate of musicality.

Pleasurable emotional response to music: A case of neurodegenerative generalized auditory agnosia

“…Conversely, preserved cognitive processing of music with loss of the emotional response to music has also been demonstrated (Griffiths, Rees et al 1997). This double dissociation supports the possibility of separate neural circuits functioning in parallel during the musical experience, as asserted by the many current theoretical models of music processing (Baeck 2002; Koelsch and Friederici 2003; Peretz, Champod et al 2003; Peretz and Coltheart 2003). …”

Neurobiology of Rhythmic Motor Entrainment

“…Music professionals, who train with extraordinary intensity, may represent apt subjects for investigating the potential of training for shaping brain circuits 9. In the last decade, contributions from different fields, spanning cognitive sciences to experimental psychology, behavioral neurology to neuroimaging, have significantly enlarged the scientific understanding of music 28. Peculiarities in the brains of musicians have been reported on the basis of morphometric analysis of postmortem brains since the beginning of the last century 29,30.…”

Sing that tune: Infants’ perception of melody and lyrics and the facilitation of phonetic recognition in songs

“…Though musical processing has customarily been associated with the right hemisphere, and language with the left (e.g., Tervaniemi et al, 2000; Zatorre, Evans, Meyer, & Gjedde, 1992), contemporary accounts posit that neural mechanisms are not as clearly defined as traditionally assumed, and that listening to both music and speech activates multiple and overlapping areas associated with multi-sensory perception (Altenmuller, 2001; Baeck, 2002; Kuhl & Damasio, in press). In approaching this topic, two main questions have been investigated in adults: (1) are the “tune” and “text” of a song stored and processed independently, or in an integrated manner (see Schön, Gordon, & Besson, 2005)?…”