Music and mirror neurons: from motion to 'e'motion

Abstract

The ability to create and enjoy music is a universal human trait and plays an important role in the daily life of most cultures. Music has a unique ability to trigger memories, awaken emotions and to intensify our social experiences. We do not need to be trained in music performance or appreciation to be able to reap its benefits-already as infants, we relate to it spontaneously and effortlessly. There has been a recent surge in neuroimaging investigations of the neural basis of musical experience, but the way in which the abstract shapes and patterns of musical sound can have such profound meaning to us remains elusive. Here we review recent neuroimaging evidence and suggest that music, like language, involves an intimate coupling between the perception and production of hierarchically organized sequential information, the structure of which has the ability to communicate meaning and emotion. We propose that these aspects of musical experience may be mediated by the human mirror neuron system.

Fig. 1

Model of the possible involvement of the human mirror neuron system in representing meaning and affective responses to music. One aspect of the experience of music involves the perception of intentional, hierarchically organized sequences of motor acts with temporally synchronous auditory information. Auditory features of the musical signal are processed primarily in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and combined with synchronous structural features of the ‘motion’ information conveyed by the musical signal in the posterior inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44) and adjacent premotor cortex. The anterior insula forms a neural conduit between the mirror neuron system and the limbic system, allowing this information to be evaluated in relation to one's own autonomic and emotional state contributing to a complex affective response mediated by the limbic system. Possible feedback mechanisms may influence the subsequent processing of the musical signal at the immediate and more long-term timescales. The shared recruitment of this neural mechanism in both the sender and the perceiver of the musical message allows for co-representation and sharing of the musical experience. Music notes from ‘The Lady Sings the Blues’ by Billie Holiday and Herbie Nichols.