Mapping the musician brain

The understanding of the relationships between music and the brain is a legitimate goal of neuroscientific research. In spite of an already large body of experimental investigation, however, the outcome has not been as satisfactory as expected, to the point that some have voiced their incredulity at the feasibility of mapping musical functions onto cerebral structures. There are indeed considerable inconsistencies in the literature bearing on the neurobiological substrates of musical functions. Before giving in to skepticism, though, it is appropriate to examine whether such inconsistencies are unavoidable and a necessary outcome of neuroscientific investigation into musical functions. This paper, therefore, examines some of the reasons that may be responsible for the inconsistencies. Beyond the superficial similarities between language and music, these two domains are functionally distinct, yet neuropsychological research in music and its neurobiological substrates has been modeled after that in verbal language, borrowing concepts and methods that were not entirely suited to the study of musical functions. An examination of the diverse factors inherent in any study of music‐brain relationships reveals a variety of potential sources of difficulties, which, if properly controlled, would guarantee higher consistency and enhance the reliability of experimental findings. It is thus suggested that progress in understanding music‐brain relationships may result from (1) explicitly outlining the structural cognitive architecture of musical functions; (2) formulating the problems in terms of underlying operations rather than in terms of vague and unspecified dichotomic views of hemisphere processing; (3) designing experiments that are musically valid and coherent, and that do not lend themselves to multiple strategies; (4) setting up appropriate controls to ensure that subjects are performing as expected; (5) restricting the investigation to musically literate individuals; (6) selecting, among such individuals, a homogeneous set of subjects sharing common musical abilities; and (7) using investigatory techniques that yield reliable evidence of local cerebral involvement in realizing the tasks under study. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.