sion increased significantly. The implicated brain areas are known to be related to reward, emotion
and arousal, and active in response to other pleasure-inducing stimuli such as chocolate, sex, and
drugs.
This experiment is a pioneering study, which combines the use of real music with strict exper-
imental control.^5
3.1.1. A selection of papers in NM I
The following selection reports noteworthy papers that illustrate findings and research questions that
were pertinent at the time of the 2002 conference. To facilitate an overview, the categories of investi-
gation are grouped as follows:
Neural correlates of sound.
Culture, development, and training.
Embodiment, motion, and emotion.
Neural correlates of sound
Pitch
Griffiths (NM I no. 3, pp. 40-49) reports studies on the processing of pitch in different brain regions
by means of PET and fMRI. He concludes that (1) spectral and temporal sound features relevant to
pitch are encoded in the brain stem; (2) a neural correlate of the conscious perception of pitch exists
in areas of auditory cortex distinct from the primary auditory cortex; (3) longer time-scale patterns of
pitch are processed in larger networks of the brain (p. 47). This implies that the brain stem responds
pre-attentively to sound, and that conscious experience of melodies involves several brain regions.
Warren et al. (NM I no. 29, pp. 212-214) find that pitch height and pitch chroma have different repre-
sentations in the auditory cortex.
Harmony
Koelsch & Friederici (NM I no. 1, pp. 15-28) have studied brain responses to chord sequences repre-
senting authentic cadences in major-minor tonal music, by means of EEG and MEG. They conclude
that event-related brain potentials (ERP) reflect the violation of a musical sound expectancy (p. 17).
This means that listeners accustomed to Western tonality react pre-attentively to unexpected chords.
Timbre
Samson (NM I no. 13, pp. 144-151) reviews studies on timbre processing in the brain. She finds that
a number of studies support the involvement of the right auditory temporal areas in timbre process-
ing. However, she points out that the contribution of left temporal areas is also apparent, and that
recent investigations suggest that a more distributed neural network is involved in timbre processing
(p. 144, 149). This paper invites further research on hemispheric specialization and distributed pro-
cessing in the brain.
Timing
Thaut (NM I no. 40, pp. 364-373) reports a number of studies on the neural basis of rhythmic timing.
Based on MEG and PET studies of finger tapping, he concludes that a widely distributed cortical and
subcortical network subserves the motor, sensory, and cognitive aspects of rhythm processing. It is
suggested that the cerebellum plays a central role in the temporal organization of cognitive and per-
ceptual processes in music (p. 371).
5 The study by Blood and Zatorre (2001) serves as a model for subsequent studies of chill experiences by Salimpoor,
Zatorre et al. (2009, 2011), which combine a refined PET technique with fMRI scanning and physiological measurements.
Cf. chapter 6.