Brain Organization for Music Processing
Abstract
Research on how the brain processes music is emerging as a rich and stimulating area of investigation of perception, memory, emotion, and performance. Results emanating from both lesion studies and neuroimaging techniques are reviewed and integrated for each of these musical functions. We focus our attention on the common core of musical abilities shared by musicians and nonmusicians alike. Hence, the effect of musical training on brain plasticity is examined in a separate section, after a review of the available data regarding music playing and reading skills that are typically cultivated by musicians. Finally, we address a currently debated issue regarding the putative existence of music-specific neural networks. Unfortunately, due to scarcity of research on the macrostructure of music organization and on cultural differences, the musical material under focus is at the level of the musical phrase, as typically used in Western popular music.
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Listening to music has the capacity to initiate a multitude of cognitive processes in the brain.
“As listening to music has the capacity to initiate a multitude of cognitive processes in the brain [32]”
From The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response (2013) · cites this paper as [32]
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- Authors
- Peretz, I., & Zatorre, R. J.
- Affiliations
- Université de Montréal (CA)
- Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (CA)
- Venue
- Annual Review of Psychology
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2005-02-01
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 89-114
- ISSN
- 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2085
- OpenAlex
- W2168729844
- Cited by
- 863
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 45 · 2014: 59 · 2013: 54 · 2012: 42
- FWCI
- 1.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
- Keywords
- music processing, music perception, music memory, music and emotion, music performance, musical training, neuroplasticity, musicianship, music reading, musical phrases, Western popular music, lesion studies, neuroimaging
- MeSH terms
- Affect, Auditory Perception, Basal Ganglia, Brain, Cerebellum, Cognition, Humans, Memory, Music, Nerve Net, Pitch Perception, Time Perception, Recognition, Psychology
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