Music, the brain and Ravel

Understanding the functional organization of the cerebral structures underlying receptive and expressive musical processes is confronted with a wide variety of difficulties inherent in the artistic and subjective nature of the musical experience. Yet clarifying the relationships between music and the brain is a legitimate goal of neuroscientific research. One approach toward this goal is based on new developments of brain imaging techniques, and recent investigations indicate that the realization of musical abilities such as sight-reading and piano performance relies on a distributed neural network comprising locally specialized cortical areas. Another approach is concerned with the study of musicians, like Maurice Ravel, who have been affected by brain damage. An analysis of their deficits helps to uncover some properties of music-brain relationships, to identify the essential questions raised by these deficits, and to clarify the neurofunctional anatomy of musical abilities. The understanding of the neurocognitive bases of musical functions is still at an early stage, but recent progress in cognitive and neurofunctional research opens the way to more systematic studies than had so far been possible.