Music is the Answer:

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music and Dance

(in the Context of Music)
Name: Plamen Valkov

Instructor: Hylke Vervaeke

Course: Brain & Cognition

Word count: 2309

Introduction
The study of perception, cognition,
creation, and artistic performance has been
at the center of experimental psychology
ever since its beginnings. Nowadays, with
technological advances allowing for better
analysis of neuroanatomy, such as the
development of functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI), this fascination
also extends to neuroscience. We are now
able to visualize brain activity in ways that
have not previously been possible, opening
the doors to a vastly improved
understanding of functional
neuroanatomical processes.
When investigating perception, cognition,
creation, and artistic performance, music
and dance are among the first of the arts to
come to mind. Few forms of expression
have had more influence on our social and
cultural evolution than these.
With its origins traced back as early as 1.8
million years ago, dance has served as a
significant social unifier, beginning in tribal
societies and extending to the current day
(Karpati et al., 2015). Although the origins
of music are less clear due to discourse
regarding what defines it, it is widely
assumed to have played an important role
alongside the beginnings of dance. It is
worth noting that the field of music
cognition originated around the 4th century
BCE, significantly earlier than the actual
field of experimental psychology.
Some scholars argue that music is not
worth studying due to the fact that they
consider it to be a type of supernormal
stimulus. An evolutionary byproduct,
which exploits the mechanisms adapted for
language. In 1997, Steven Pinker claimed
that music is like an auditory cheesecake,
comparing it to our constant desire for
foods with salt, fat, and sugar. A once
beneficial trait, which has become
maladaptive when put into the context of
modern society (Levitin et al., 2009). In
more recent times, this claim has been
somewhat refuted through the multitude of
studies, proving the evolutionary
advantages brought forth as a result of
abilities in artistic expression and creative
thinking (Gabora, Kaufman, 2011). Despite
this, there is merit to Pinkers statement in
that music and language do share common
pathways, as will be explored at a later
stage in this essay.
Through the investigation of current
advances in cognitive psychology and
neuroscience, this essay aims to examine
the neural mechanisms involved in not only
perceiving music or dance, but also
performing one or the other. It begins with
an overview of current studies, which
examine the basic perception of music, the
interconnectedness between language and
music circuitry is then investigated,
followed by the emotional effects of
listening to music, before moving on to
recent findings on the links between music
and physical movement, where the neural
correlates of dance in the context of music
will be explored.
Primary Perception of Music
Music can be separated into eight
different, individually perceivable
elements: pitch, rhythm, timbre, tempo,
meter, contour, amplitude, and spatial
location. The unification of these separate
elements is known as perceptual grouping
and occurs in a way, which is similar to the
way visual stimuli are grouped (Borchert et
al., 2011). Over the course of human
history, different cultures have developed
different rules regarding the combination of
these eight factors. The unique set of rules
defines that respective cultures musical
grammar (Jackendoff & Lerdahl, 2006).
From the Western point of view, there exist
two main kinds of musical systems: the
Western and non-Western musical systems.
The Western system refers to the usage of
the chromatic scale as the basis of
tonality. This scale divides the octave into
twelve tones, separated by fixed ratios. This
scale places A above middle C at 440 Hz,
as recommended by the American
Standards Association in 1936 and accepted
by the International Organization for
Standardization in 1955 (Martin & Mead
1979). There are many variances among
non-Western musical systems, but for this
essay, the focus will remain on Western
music.
Until recently, it was assumed that most
musical processing occurred mostly in the
right hemisphere, while language in the
left. Current studies suggest a more
complex reality, attributing different, both
lateral and bilateral, processing
mechanisms for all of the separable
elements listed above. Pitch and pitch
intervals, for example, have been found to
be processed mainly in the right temporal
region, but also in the left dorsolateral
prefrontal and right inferior frontal cortex
(Levitin et al., 2009; Bidelman & Grall,
2014). In the majority of mammals, the
primary auditory cortex in both cerebral
hemispheres houses a map of pitches,
running from low to high (in terms of
frequency). This resembles the way in
which pitch sensitivity is distributed in the
cochlea, where, on the other hand, they run
from high to low (Pienkowski &
Eggermont, 2011).
Music and Language
Parallels between the cognitive
processes involved in perceiving music and
spoken language are continuously being
drawn with the increasing number of
studies in this area. Intuitively, music and
spoken language have many common
attributes in that they are both auditory-
based communication media; both involve
coherent, temporally evolving sensory
input, both have a form of syntax and
structural hierarchy. In language, syntax
involves the grammatical roles of separate
elements in a sentence, whereas in music, it
has been argued that relationships between
elements such as tone, intervals, chords,
and scales make up the syntactic universal,
regardless of whether the musical system is
Western, or non-Western (Jackendoff &
Lerdahl, 2006). Similarly to language,
music tonality has also been found to be
subject to a sensitive period during
development. Chomsky (1965) put forward
the idea that all humans have a Language
Acquisition Device. Due to this, from the
nativist perspective, given the correct input
during a sensitive period, all humans are
able to automatically acquire language.
Studies suggest that this notion can also be
extended to the acquisition of the rules
governing different musical cultures and
tonal systems (Nogina & Volchegorskaya,
2014). Differences in musical cultures and
tonal systems manifest in the rules
regarding the composition of pitches into
scales, melodies, and chords, as well as, to
a reduced extent rhythms. In fact, infants,
as young as nine months of age, have been
shown to be sensitive to misused tones
from the Western major scale (Trehub et
al., 1999). EEG and imaging studies have
shown that when a violation of musical
grammar occurs, an event-related brain
potential (ERP) response known as early
right anterior negativity (ERAN) is elicited
(James et al., 2015). Interestingly, when a
syntactic violation of spoken language
occurs, it is typically recorded as a left-
lateralized anterior negativity (LAN),
however, when musically proficient
individuals were examined, it was found
that an LAN was elicited by syntactic errors
in normal English sentences, in musicians,
while non-musicians exhibited a bilateral
AN (Fitzroy & Sanders, 2013). This
suggests that common neural resources are
responsible for the initial processing of
syntactic violations in both spoken
language and music, and that musical
expertise results in more specialized
cortical organization of syntactic
processing in both domains (Fitzroy &
Sanders, 2013).
Music and Emotion
Conversely, when subjects were
presented with music from their own
culture, without violations in musical
grammar, one study showed activation in
the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex
(VMPC), an area is known to activate when
an individual perceives information as non-
challenging and has the feeling of being
able to process it with ease (Nan et al.,
2008). This feeling of comfort is something
that composers frequently try to exploit by
having their pieces develop in unexpected
ways, while staying within the musical
grammar of their particular culture. This
violation of expectations can lead to even
more powerful and unique emotional
experience for those listening. Contrary to
what may seem intuitive, musicians are not
the only listeners who constantly form
expectations regarding the direction of a
piece. It has been shown that all, listeners,
even non-musicians are engaged in forming
predictions, albeit mainly on a particular significance in social contexts
subconscious level (Levitin et al., 2009). A
prime example of the violation of
expectations with the aim of building and
retaining tension can be seen in Samuel
Barbers Adagio for Strings. In this
piece, Barber uses false and deceptive
harmonic cadences, accentuated by
manipulations of dynamics and meter, to
delay, and ultimately never deliver, the
resolution of this seven minute emotional
rollercoaster (Valkov, 2013). Pieces like
Barbers Adagio for Strings exemplify (Merchant & Honing, 2014). The
the central role of tension (or anticipation)
and release (or resolution) in the experience
of music. Neuroimaging studies show that
during peak moments of arousal, when
listening to music, endogenous dopamine is
released in the striatum. More specifically,
the caudate was found to be most involved
with the anticipation of the development of
a certain passage, while the nucleus
accumbens shows greatest activity at the
peak of an emotional response (Salimpoor
et al., 2011) Studies like this one
demonstrate that music, even as an abstract
stimulus, provokes tangible rewards,
comparable to those elicited by biologically
beneficial activities such as sex but also by
drugs of abuse.
Further highlighting the importance of
anticipation and resolution in the
experience of music, a study by Blood &
Zatorre (2001) demonstrated the activation
of the ventral striatum and deactivation of
the amygdala, in correlation to the
subjective experience of goose bumps
during music. The observed activity in
these areas is associated with the
experience of expecting reward,
particularly when anticipating the
resolution of tonal ambiguity (Clark et al.,
2014). In terms of the social importance of
emotional response to music, multiple
studies have shown the role of subjectively
pleasant music in the release of oxytocin, a
hormone associated with positive feelings
and the promotion of social bonding
(Chanda & Levitin, 2013). This is of
involving large groups of people exposed to
the same musical stimulus, such as dance
circles in tribal societies, or concerts and
nightclubs in contemporary social contexts.
Music and Movement (Dance)
Humans are the only primates, or
animals for that matter, that possess the
ability to synchronize sound and
movements, or rhythmically entrain
established neural and cultural connections
between music and dance (or sound and
movement) suggest an evolutionary
connection reaching back far beyond
recorded history. The foundation of dance
can be argued to be the implementation of
rhythm into more complex and intricate,
voluntary limb movements. When listening
to music, it is difficult to refrain from
engaging in movement. Unconscious
tapping to rhythm has been found to
activate the pre-supplementary motor area
involved in the intent towards movement,
the supplementary motor area involved in
carrying out intended movements, the
dorsal premotor cortex involved in hand
movement preparation, the inferior parietal
lobule involved with interpretation of
sensory information, and lobule VI of the
cerebellum involved in motor activation
and refinement (Levitin et al., 2009; Hove
et al., 2013; Stoodley et al., 2012). In
particular, variations in meter (rhythmic
division), showed varying activity in the
dorsal premotor cortex, which was
proportional to the extent to which the
meter was uncommon (Chen et al., 2008).
Other studies also linked the anterior
vermis, basal ganglia, and medial
geniculate nucleus in perception and
execution of rhythmic sounds and
movements (Brown & Parsons, 2008;
Cameron & Grahn, 2014).
Dance movements with greater complexity
and spatial movement were found to
involve increased activity in the precaneus -
part of the parietal lobe, which is involved
in kinesthetic spatial perception and
orientation (Brown & Parsons 2008).
Furthermore, finer control of movements
was shown to elicit increased activity in the
premotor cortex and supplementary motor
area, which communicate directly with the
motor cortex. The cerebellum was also
found to become increasingly activated, as
it received feedback from the muscles and
interpreted that information, sending it
through the basal ganglia and thalamus
back towards the premotor and motor
cortices in order to exercise refinement of
ongoing movements (Brown & Parsons,
2008). In social contexts, dance is very
rarely not accompanied by music. Think
about how strange it feels when you take
off your headphones at a silent disco.
Studies investigating the activity of mirror
neurons during dance in a social context,
found that areas associated with the
planning and execution of motion were
activated in subjects who were watching
others dance but remained completely still
themselves (Berrol, 2006). The results of
this study can be interpreted as a
scientifically based explanation for the
social unification properties of music and
dance - a physical, kinesthetic,
manifestation of empathy.
Conclusion
The aim of this essay was to provide an
overview of current advances in different
aspects of the field of music and dance
(within the context of music). To this aim,
studies were presented on the neural
correlates of different aspects of musical
processing and experience, as well as dance
performance. Basic, primary musical
perceptive, mechanisms, were discussed
first, where it was found that music can be
separated into eight individually
perceivable elements, out of which pitch
was mainly investigated. It was found that
most mammals have a tonotopic map of
pitches in the primary auditory cortex, and
that the majority of pitch processing occurs
bilaterally in the temporal regions.
Parallels between music and language were
then explored, beginning with a sensitive
period common to both musical tonality
and language acquisition, and moving on to
the largely overlapping ERP responses
during the perception of violation of
musical and language syntax.
The emotional effects of music were then
investigated, showing common reward
circuitry activation as biologically
rewarding activities but also the
consumption of drugs of abuse. The
emotional effects of music in a social
context were also investigated, concluding
the release of oxytocin, during exposure to
subjectively pleasant music, aiding social
cohesion.
Finally, the links between music and
movement were explored, beginning with
the unconscious mechanism for keeping
rhythm via finger tapping and then
exploring the neural processes behind more
complex forms of movement to music.
Social context was also explored here, once
again concluding the significant role of
music, but this time also dance, in social
cohesion and unification.
A suggestion for further research would be
to look into possible applications for the
large amounts of new discoveries being
made in this domain. Common neural
networks between music and language with dance could be used to help children
could be exploited in new forms of therapy and individuals with autism to become
for children with language deficits. Therapy better able to empathize.
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