Music, Language, and the Brain

Aniruddh D. Patel is past president of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University.

1. Introduction ; 2. Sound Elements: Pitch and Timbre ; 2.1 Introduction ; 2.2 Musical Sound Systems ; 2.3 Linguistic Sound Systems ; 2.4 Sound Category Learning as a Key Link ; 2.5 Conclusion ; Appendixes ; 3. Rhythm ; 3.1 Introduction ; 3.2 Rhythm in Music ; 3.3 Rhythm in Speech ; 3.4 Interlude: Rhythm in Poetry and Song ; 3.5 Non-Periodic Aspects of Rhythm as a Key Link ; 3.6 Conclusion ; Appendixes ; 4. Melody ; 4.1 Introduction ; 4.2 Melody in Music: Comparisons to Speech ; 4.3 Speech Melody: Links to Music ; 4.4 Interlude: Musical and Linguistic Melody in Song ; 4.5 Melodic Statistics and Melodic Contour as Key Links ; 4.6 Conclusion ; Appendix ; 5. Syntax ; 5.1 Introduction ; 5.2 The Structural Richness of Musical Syntax ; 5.3 Formal Differences and Similarities between Musical and Linguistic Syntax ; 5.4 Neural Resources for Syntactic Integration as a Key Link ; 5.5 Conclusion ; 6. Meaning ; 6.1 Introduction ; 6.2 A Brief Taxonomy of Musical Meaning ; 6.3 Linguistic Meaning in Relation to Music ; 6.4 Interlude: Linguistic and Musical Meaning in Song ; 6.5 The Expression and Appraisal of Emotion as a Key Link ; 6.6 Conclusion ; 7. Evolution ; 7.1 Introduction ; 7.2 Language and Natural Selection ; 7.3 Music and Natural Selection ; 7.4 Music and Evolution: Neither Adaptation nor Frill ; 7.5 Beat-Based Rhythm Processing as a Key Research Area ; 7.6 Conclusion ; Appendix ; Afterword ; References ; List of Sound Examples ; Lis of Credits ; Author Index ; Subject Index