c o r t e x 4 7 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 0 2 3 e1 0 2 5
available at www.sciencedirect.com
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex
Editorial
Tuning the brain for music
Daniela Perani a,*, Mari Tervaniemi b and Petri Toiviainen c
a
Vita Salute San Raffaele University, Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
b
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Cognitive Science, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
c
Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
When compared to human auditory cognition and expertise,
which in the field of language learning have been widely
investigated for decades, music and its brain determinants
form a more novel area of research. However, thanks to recent
advances in theoretical and methodological domains in
cognitive neuroscience, this appealing research area has
become feasible. In parallel, thanks to mobile sound tech-
nology and social concomitants of music, the importance of
music in our daily life has increased remarkably. Thus, music
and its brain basis have become an important topic for
multidisciplinary investigation, not only scientifically but also
socially.
Music offers a unique, rich and inspiring setting, which is
collectively enjoyed within all human cultures. It offers
a plenitude of variations in terms of musical instruments and
styles, as well as ways of performing and dancing. Despite the
fact that music does not seem to have explicit survival value
for humans, musical appreciation can be regarded as a basic
phenomenon of life. In almost every culture people not only
use music as a means of communication but also just simply
enjoy performing and listening to music. Furthermore, music
is used by some cultures, in various ways, as a means to
regulate the emotions and actions of their members, both in
individual and in social settings.
There are differences across cultures with respect to the
gross external surface of the musical system applied. For
instance, in our modern Western societies there are actually
many musical systems and subcultures present. Yet, it is also
true that a deeper analysis into different musical systems
reveals some fascinating commonalities, whose distribution
is widespread to the point that such aspects are often
described as music universals. If, therefore, some musical
universals do exist, the following confirming step would be to
analyse what the brain of someone who has never been
* Corresponding author. Vita Salute San Raffaele University, Division of Neuroscience, Scientific Institute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
E-mail address: perani.daniela@hsr.it (D. Perani).
0010-9452/$ e see front matter ª 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2011.05.021
exposed to a particular musical system “looks like”. Indeed,
studies have been made in infants, who have been found to
show musical abilities remarkably similar to those of adults
(Perani et al., 2010); even more intriguing is the finding that
sensitivity to culture-specific details of tonal and harmonic
structure seems to emerge between 5 and 7 years of age
(Trehub, 2003). Before this age, infants seem to be sensitive to
musical characteristics which are culture-independent; for
example, they are able to perceive violations in complex
metre, a characteristic of much non-Western tonal music
(Levitin and Tirovolas, 2009).
Together with the contribution of neuropsychology to the
study of “music and the brain”, the modern tools of cognitive
neuroscience, such as high resolution electroencephalogram
(EEG), magnetoencephalogram (MEG), functional and
anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, MRI) and
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), have been and will
be very relevant in systematically constructing the neural
basis and correlates for music processes. Thanks to very
recent developments in the field of music perception and
cognition and their neural bases, a solid foundation for further
progress has been established. Consequently, a significant
number of recent studies have used functional neuroimaging
methods to investigate the perception and cognition of
musical stimuli by the human brain. Even more recently,
neuroscience has begun to reveal the brain functions behind
musical expertise, appreciation, performance, and emotions
(Peretz and Zatorre, 2005; Peretz, 2006; Brattico and
Tervaniemi, 2010; Tervaniemi, in press).
A major point taken into account by such research concerns
the emotional aspects conveyed by music, since a primary
feature of music is indeed its capacity to generate strong
emotions in the listeners (Brattico and Jacobsen, 2009). Not
surprisingly, the emotional aspects of music typically involve
1024 c o r t e x 4 7 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 0 2 3 e1 0 2 5
the activation of limbic and paralimbic structures (amygdala,
hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, temporal poles, insula,
ventral striatum, as well as orbitofrontal and cingulate cortex)
(Koelsch, 2005). Traditionally, these emotional aspects have
been investigated by contrasting different tempos of music
(fast or slow) (Peretz and Zatorre, 2005) and different modes,
with major scales used to create “happy” moods, while minor
scales classify the excerpt as “sad” (Halpern et al., 2008).
Dynamics and instrumentation, too, are specifically used by
the composer in order to convey an emotional “meaning” to
the excerpt. As pointed out in a recent study by Koelsch et al.
(2008), irregular sequences used to verify the processing of
musical structural rules, may also be perceived as unexpected
and therefore they are likely to convey a different emotional
valence than regular ones. Indeed, not only are irregular
sequences behaviourally judged as more unpleasant, but they
also modulate amygdala activity.
Part of the outcome of the BrainTuning project is introduced
in this Special Section. The BrainTuning project, supported by
the NEST program of the European Commission in 2006e2009,
was established to explore the neural determinants of music
emotions and appreciation. The topic was approached in
a synergetic, multidisciplinary fashion by taking into account
the neurocognitive determinants and development of music
cognition, emotion and appreciation in various subject groups,
from infancy to mature adulthood and patients. Also both
musically untrained and musically trained individuals were
investigated. New methodological approaches are reported: for
example, a synthesis method allowing the manipulation of
values of several musical variables simultaneously (tempo,
sound level, articulation, phrasing, register, timbre, and attack
speed) (Bresin and Friberg, 2011, this issue); and simultaneous
EEG recordings in a saxophone quartet while observing their
musical performances with different degrees of empathy
(Babiloni et al., 2011, this issue); and a new fast mismatch
negativity paradigm developed for determining the neural
prerequisites for musical ability (Vuust et al., 2011, this issue).
All these papers not only provide detailed descriptions and the
validation of the applied methods, as new possible bases for
future experimental paradigms, but also reveal new exciting
results in the neuroscience of music. Additionally, a novel
behavioural exploration on the interactive roles of mood and
personality in the perception of music-induced emotions is
given by Vuoskoski and Eerola (2011, this issue).
A review paper is dedicated to sensitive periods in human
development as evidenced by musical training showing the
existence of a possible sensitive period for musical training
that has its greatest impact on measures of sensorimotor
integration (Penhune, 2011, this issue). A second review paper
addresses the development of aesthetic responses to music,
and their underlying neural and psychological mechanisms
that may contribute to the development of aesthetic experi-
ences of music, by presenting new results and a review of the
related literature (Nieminen et al., 2011, this issue).
On the neurological side there are two articles concerning
patients with cerebral lesions who were tested in their ability
to perceive musical emotions. Dellacherie et al. (2011, this
issue) report patients with temporal lobe resection including
the amygdala in whom emotional responses to music were at
least partially preserved at a non-verbal level. This finding has
important implications for clinics but also for the current
neuropsychological models on emotion. The second neuro-
logical article (Gosselin et al., 2011, this issue) shows instead
an impaired recognition of musical emotions together with
facial expressions following anteromedial temporal lobe
excision, but only for the fearful condition. Dissociation found
in two patients for music and face recognition suggests that
a multimodal representation of fear in the amygdala could
exist, but also that fear recognition in faces and in music does
not necessarily involve the same cerebral networks.
When considering the current and future development in
the field of neurosciences of music, it is fascinating to note
that this research can be performed with the most advanced
tools and paradigms, as documented, for example, in the
recent article by Salimpoor et al. (2011): while the participants
were listening to their own favourite music, positron emission
tomography (PET) was applied to measure the neurochemistry
of music-induced emotions. PET scanning was followed by
fMRI investigation of BOLD responses related to the timing of
music-induced emotions. Their results indicate that intense
pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in
the basal ganglia, providing neurochemical evidence that
intense emotional responses to music involve ancient reward
circuitry. This study contributes to our understanding of why
music is of such high value across all human societies.
Notably, it also showed that the anticipation of an abstract
reward result of dopamine release in an anatomical pathway
is distinct from that associated with the peak pleasure itself.
The findings introduced above and detailed in the Special
Section, together with the advantageous results concerning the
effectiveness of music therapy both at the behavioural and
neural levels (Särkämö et al., 2008, 2010; Erkkilä et al., in press),
will boost a new generation of music-based brain studies,
which will reveal the brain determinants not only of perceptual
and cognitive functions but also of creative and emotional
processes in normal and clinical populations. Music thus offers
a plenitude of promises for various fields of modern neurosci-
ence, such as cognitive, educational, social, affective and
developmental branches of neuroscience with tight connec-
tions to practical applications e either now or at least in future.
references
Babiloni C, Vecchio F, Infarinato F, Buffo P, Marzano N, Spada D, et al.
Simultaneous recording of electroencephalographic data in
musicians playing in ensemble. Cortex, 47(9): 1082e1090, 2011.
Brattico E and Jacobsen T. Subjective appraisal of music:
Neuroimaging evidence. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 1169: 308e317, 2009.
Brattico E and Tervaniemi M. Creativity in musicians: Evidence
from cognitive neuroscience. In Bader R, Morgenstern U, and
Neuhaus C (Eds), Studies in Systematic Musicology e Festschrift in
Honor of Professor Albrecht Schneider. Frankfurt: Peter Lang
Verlag, 2010: 233e244.
Bresin R and Friberg A. Emotion rendering in music: Range and
characteristic values of seven musical variables. Cortex,
47(9): 1068e1081, 2011.
Dellacherie D, Bigand E, Molin P, Baulac M, and Samson S.
Multidimensional scaling of emotional responses to music in
patients with temporal lobe resection. Cortex, 47(9):
1107e1115, 2011.
 c o r t e x 4 7 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 0 2 3 e1 0 2 5
Erkkilä J, Punkanen M, Fachner J, Ala-Ruona E, Pöntiö I, Tervaniemi
M, et al. Individual music therapy for depression: Randomised
controlled trial. British Journal of Psychiatry, in press.
Gosselin N, Peretz I, Hasboun D, Baulac M, and Samson S.
Impaired recognition of musical emotions and facial
expressions following anteromedial temporal lobe excision.
Cortex, 47(9): 1116e1125, 2011.
Halpern AR, Martin JS, and Reed TD. An ERP study of majoreminor
classification in melodies. Music Perception, 25(3): 181e191, 2008.
Koelsch S. Investigating emotion with music: Neuroscientific
approaches. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
1060: 412e418, 2005.
Koelsch S, Kilches S, Steinbeis N, and Schelinski S. Effects of
unexpected chords and of performer’s expression on brain
responses and electrodermal activity. PLoS ONE, 3(7), 2008.
Levitin DJ and Tirovolas AK. Current advances in the cognitive
neuroscience of music. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 1156: 211e231, 2009.
Nieminen S, Istók E, Brattico E, Tervaniemi M, and Huotilainen M.
The development of aesthetic responses to music and their
underlying neural and psychological mechanisms. Cortex,
47(9): 1138e1146, 2011.
Penhune V. Sensitive periods in human development: Evidence
from musical training. Cortex, 47(9): 1126e1137, 2011.
Perani D, Saccuman MC, Scifo P, Spada D, Andreolli G, Rovelli R,
et al. Functional specializations for music processing in the
human newborn brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America, 107(10):
4758e4763, 2010.
1025
Peretz I and Zatorre RJ. Brain organization for music processing.
Annual Review of Psychology, 56: 89e114, 2005.
Peretz I. The nature of music from a biological perspective.
Cognition, 100(1): 1e32, 2006.
Salimpoor VN, Benovoy M, Larcher K, Dagher A, and Zatorre RJ.
Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation
and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature Neuroscience,
14(2): 257e264, 2011.
Särkämö T, Pihko E, Laitinen S, Forsblom A, Soinila S,
Mikkonen M, et al. Music and speech listening enhance the
recovery of early sensory processing after stroke. Journal of
Cognitive Neuroscience, 22: 2716e2727, 2010.
Särkämö T, Tervaniemi M, Laitinen S, Forsblom A, Soinila S,
Mikkonen M, et al. Music listening enhances cognitive
recovery and mood after middle cerebral artery stroke.
Brain, 131: 866e876, 2008.
Tervaniemi, M. Musicianship e how and where in the brain?
In Hargreaves D, Miell D and MacDonald R (Eds), Musical
Imaginations: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Creativity,
Performance and Perception. Oxford University Press, in press.
Trehub SE. The developmental origins of musicality. Nature
Neuroscience, 6(7): 669e673, 2003.
Vuoskoski JK and Eerola T. The role of mood and personality in
the perception of emotions represented by music. Cortex,
47(9): 1099e1106, 2011.
Vuust P, Brattico E, Glerean E, Seppänen M, Pakarinen S,
Tervaniemi M, et al. New fast mismatch negativity paradigm
for determining the neural prerequisites for musical ability.
Cortex, 47(9): 1091e1098, 2011.