© CATHERINE DELPHIAFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have taken diverse approaches to pinpointing areas involved in musical perception, providing “musical” stimuli ranging from human singing to synthesized piano melodies and other computer-generated sounds, and yielding equally varied results. Despite these hurdles, research is beginning to offer some clues about the regions of the brain involved in musical perception.
Based on Cortex, 59:126-37, 2014
Music activates diverse areas of the brain, from the primary auditory cortex to the amygdala. But the degree to which certain areas are specifically geared to processing music, as opposed to other sounds, is unclear. By comparing activation patterns in the brain while people listened to nonmusical human vocalizations, such as speech or laughter, or to instrumental music, researchers found that certain regions responded more strongly to one type of auditory stimulus than the other. For example, parts of the superior temporal gyrus (STG), the superior temporal sulcus (STS), and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) showed stronger responses to vocalizations ...
