The musical brain

Abstract During listening, acoustic features of sounds are extracted in the auditory system (in the auditory brainstem, thalamus, and auditory cortex). To establish auditory percepts of melodies and rhythms (i.e., to establish auditory “Gestalten” and auditory objects), sound information is buffered and processed in the auditory sensory memory. Musical structure is then processed based on acoustical similarities and rhythmical organization, and according to (implicit) knowledge about musical regularities underlying scales, melodic and harmonic progressions, etc. These structures are based on both local and (hierarchically organized) nonlocal dependencies. In addition, music can evoke representations of meaningful concepts, and elicit emotions. This chapter reviews neural correlates of these processes, with regard to both brain-electric responses to sounds, and the neuroanatomical architecture of music perception.