Rhythm, Music, and the Brain: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Applications

With the advent of modern cognitive neuroscience and its new tools of studying the human brain "live," music as a highly complex, temporally ordered and rule-based sensory language quickly became a fascinating topic of study. By studying the physiology and neurology of brain function in music, we can obtain a great deal of knowledge about the perception of complex auditory sound stimuli; time perception and rhythm processing; the differential processing of music and language of two aural communication systems; biological substrates of learning versus innate talent in the arts; and processing of higher cognitive functions related to temporality and emotion. The main goal of the book is to bring the knowledge in the arts and the sciences together and review systematically our current state of study about the brain and music, specifically in rhythm. This book will be of interest for the lay and professional reader in the sciences and arts as well as the professionals in the fields of neuroscientific research,medicine, and rehabilitation.