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Neural Underpinnings of Music: The Polyrhythmic Brain

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Book cover Neurobiology of Interval Timing

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 829))

Abstract

Musical rhythm, consisting of apparently abstract intervals of accented temporal events, has the remarkable ability to move our minds and bodies. Why do certain rhythms make us want to tap our feet, bop our heads or even get up and dance? And how does the brain process rhythmically complex rhythms during our experiences of music? In this chapter, we describe some common forms of rhythmic complexity in music and propose that the theory of predictive coding can explain how rhythm and rhythmic complexity are processed in the brain. We also consider how this theory may reveal why we feel so compelled by rhythmic tension in music. First, musical-theoretical and neuroscientific frameworks of rhythm are presented, in which rhythm perception is conceptualized as an interaction between what is heard (‘rhythm’) and the brain’s anticipatory structuring of music (‘the meter’). Second, three different examples of tension between rhythm and meter in music are described: syncopation, polyrhythm and groove. Third, we present the theory of predictive coding of music, which posits a hierarchical organization of brain responses reflecting fundamental, survival-related mechanisms associated with predicting future events. According to this theory, perception and learning is manifested through the brain’s Bayesian minimization of the error between the input to the brain and the brain’s prior expectations. Fourth, empirical studies of neural and behavioral effects of syncopation, polyrhythm and groove will be reported, and we propose how these studies can be seen as special cases of the predictive coding theory. Finally, we argue that musical rhythm exploits the brain’s general principles of anticipation and propose that pleasure from musical rhythm may be a result of such anticipatory mechanisms.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although often used interchangeably, the difference between polyrhythm and polymeter is important to maintain. In the former, more than one rhythmic pattern is played simultaneously, underpinned by the same meter, while in the latter, more than one rhythm based on different meters is played simultaneously.

  2. 2.

    Microtiming, otherwise known as expressive timing or ‘swing’, refers to patterns of rhythmic events that do not occur exactly ‘on’ the pulse, but slightly ‘late’ or ‘early’ in relation to it [50–52].

  3. 3.

    According to this understanding, the meter can be seen as conveying what has elsewhere been termed schematic expectations, whereas the perceptually syncopated rhythmic patterns are perceived according to veridical expectations [73].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

    Peter Vuust, Line K. Gebauer & Maria A. G. Witek

  2. The Royal Academy of music Aarhus, Aalborg, Denmark

    Peter Vuust, Line K. Gebauer & Maria A. G. Witek

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  1. Peter Vuust
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Correspondence to Peter Vuust .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Campus Juriquilla, Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Querétaro, Mexico

    Hugo Merchant

  2. Campus Juriquilla, Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Querétaro, Mexico

    Victor de Lafuente

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Vuust, P., Gebauer, L.K., Witek, M.A.G. (2014). Neural Underpinnings of Music: The Polyrhythmic Brain. In: Merchant, H., de Lafuente, V. (eds) Neurobiology of Interval Timing. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 829. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1782-2_18

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