The general approach we have defended, to view music within a biological framework,
thus would seem to make sense of these disparate observations, if musical perceptual abil-
ities—and by extension musical production abilities—are seen as emerging from func-
tional and structural features of our nervous system. There is a final point that should
perhaps be addressed, however, and this concerns the origins of music. Without entering
into the controversies and speculations of this field of scholarship (see Chapter 5, this vol-
ume), perhaps it is sufficient to point out that the approach offered here would provide a
relatively parsimonious account. In order to understand the emergence of music, it might
be sufficient to assume only one set of evolutionary pressures: the need to communicate
verbally. If the specialization of the left auditory cortex discussed above reflects the nerv-
ous system’s adaptation to this selective pressure, then all we need to assume is that the
complementary structural and functional changes of the two hemispheres arose as a
consequence of this specialization (see also Ref. 49 for further discussion).
The ideas presented in this chapter, or indeed in this entire volume, will ultimately
be shown to be correct, or at least partially so, or in error by the usual slow and meandering
path of science. Regardless of the details, however, the hope is that by viewing music as a
phenomenon worthy of scientific study, we will enhance both our understanding of music
within our species, as well as the workings of our nervous system that make music possible.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank all my colleagues and students who contributed to the research described
in this chapter. Funding for the work has been provided by grants from the Canadian
Institutes of Health Research, the McDonnell-Pew Cognitive Neuroscience Program, and
the International Foundation for Music Research.
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