ABSTRACT

Scientists and philosophers alike have long asked questions about the cerebral localization of the human faculties such as language and music. In recent years, however, human cognitive neuroscience has shifted from “blobology”—a dogmatic focus on identifying individual brain areas that subserved specific cognitive functions—to a more network-based approach. This sea change is aided by the development of sophisticated tools for sensing and seeing the brain, as well as more mature theories with which neuroscientists think about the relationship between brain and behavior. The newly developed tools include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its many uses including functional (fMRI) as well as structural imaging, electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), and brain stimulation techniques (transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, and transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS) with which it is possible to test the causal roles of specific targeted brain areas. Here, we review representative studies that use music as a domain for understanding specific brain regions, as well as studies that identify widespread networks of regions that enable specific aspects of musical experience. General anatomical locations of brain regions that will be highlighted are shown in Figure 2.1 below. For a more comprehensive review of brain anatomy including all its structures and functions, the reader is directed to more general cognitive neuroscience sources such as Purves, et al. (2013). In this chapter, we focus on brain areas and networks as they relate to specific aspects of musical experience.