The Origins of Music: Preface - Preface

ment of the left hemisphere when lyrics are part of the song,but greater

dependence on the right hemisphere when they are not (Yamadori et al.

1977).

An fMRI study (Wildgruber et al.1996) of ten volunteers as they

silently sang a well-known melody using the syllable lain place of words

confirmed that the right hemisphere is dominant for singing without

words.However,landmarks were not available with which to identify the

precise region in the right frontal lobe that was activated during singing.

Because the same region was activated by nonspeech tongue move-

ments,the investigators assumed that it must be part of the primary

205 Hominid Brain Evolution and the Origins of Music

Figure 13.2

Schematic of the left and right hemispheres of the human brain which summarizes

abilities that are relatively lateralized in most people.See text for discussion.

Fig.13.2