ABSTRACT
WE just left Mike and Jane at the opera at the end of the previous chapter. What is going on in their brains as they listen to the music? What would we learn if we could “lift the lid” and peer inside? Perhaps no other area of music psychology has seen such rapid advancement as the neuroscience of music. Evidence of this is seen in several new popular books, such as Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain (Sacks, 2007) and This is your brain on music (Levitin, 2006). Further examples come in the form of a series of Neurosciences and Music conferences and their attendant proceedings (Avanzini, Faienza, Minciacchi, Lopez, & Majno, 2003; Avanzini, Lopez, Koelsch, & Majno, 2005; Dalla Bella et al., 2009; Zatorre & Peretz, 2001). In addition, a recent review of neuromusical research literature indicated that by 2007 well over 2000 articles had been published (Edwards & Hodges, 2007), with more appearing constantly.1 One reason for this surge of interest may be that technology now allows scientists to peer inside the brain to monitor inner workings in detail never before possible.
