The human language system does not support music processing

Language and music are two human-unique capacities whose relationship remains debated. Some argue for overlap in processing mechanisms, especially for structure processing, but others fail to find overlap. Using fMRI, we examined the responses of language brain regions to diverse music stimuli, and also probed the musical abilities of individuals with severe aphasia. Across four experiments, we obtained a clear answer: music does not recruit nor requires the language system. The language regions′ responses to music are generally low and never exceed responses elicited by non-music auditory conditions, like animal sounds. Further, the language regions are not sensitive to music structure: they show low responses to both intact and scrambled music, and to melodies with vs. without structural violations. Finally, individuals with aphasia who cannot judge sentence grammaticality perform well on melody well-formedness judgments. Thus the mechanisms that process structure in language do not appear to support music processing.