All parts of the brain › Functions › Music

What part of the brain processes music?

No single centre handles music. The auditory cortex on the superior temporal gyrus resolves pitch and melody, the right side more finely; Broca’s area on the inferior frontal gyrus reacts when a chord breaks the rules of harmony; the putamen, the cerebellum and the motor areas in front of the central groove follow the beat even during listening alone; and the amygdala joins in the emotion of music. [1][2][3]

The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The list of parts still says what each one does for music.

Lit: whole parts; region borders not drawn.

Slice

All 6 parts are lit together. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap a part on the brain or a name in the list to focus it; .

The auditory cortex and Broca’s area are regions on these gyri, not separate shapes. The 3D model draws only whole gyri, so the gyrus that holds each area is lit; the area’s exact border is not drawn.

Music: 6 parts lit

Superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, cerebellum, putamen, amygdala and precentral gyrus. Tap one to see where it is and what it does.

The parts and their roles

Holds the primary auditory cortex, one of the main areas for fine pitch resolution, and the secondary auditory cortex around it, where the right side resolves pitch more finely than the left and melody is processed automatically; producing a melody spreads activity along the gyrus. [1] Where is the superior temporal gyrus?
A chord that breaks the harmony of a major–minor key evokes an early brain response whose source was located in Broca’s area and its right-hemisphere twin, the same areas that analyse sentence structure in speech. [4][5] Where is the inferior frontal gyrus?
Joins the supplementary motor area and premotor cortex when people listen to musical rhythms, even with no plan to tap along, and is thought to matter most for timing on the scale of milliseconds. [3][1] Where is the cerebellum?
Responds to a steady beat: rhythms with a beat, against matched rhythms without one, raised putamen activity in every condition tested, and only the basal ganglia, the putamen most strongly, responded to the presence of a beat itself. [2] Where is the putamen?
Unpleasant, permanently dissonant music activated it (with the hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and temporal poles) more than pleasant music did, and its blood flow changed with the intensity of musical “chills”. [5][6] Where is the amygdala?
Holds the primary motor cortex that moves the fingers, lips and breath used to play or sing; just in front of it, the premotor cortex is drawn in by rhythm even during listening alone, and couples with the putamen when a beat is felt. [7][3][2] Where is the motor cortex (precentral gyrus)?

Named areas on the lit gyri

Auditory cortex, on the : On the upper surface of the superior temporal gyrus; its belt and parabelt areas on the right side take part in processing rhythm, and the right auditory cortex mainly in pitch and parts of harmony and melody. [1]
Broca’s area, on the : On the inferior frontal gyrus; it was named as a source of the brain’s response to a chord out of harmony, and pleasant music activated the inferior frontal gyrus (Brodmann areas 44, 45 and 46) more than unpleasant music. [4][5]

How they work together

Music and speech share ground: in one study linguistic and melodic phrases activated almost identical areas, among them the supplementary motor area, Broca’s area and the anterior insula, and the structure of music and of language appears to be processed in similar ways. [1]
Strong pleasure from music, felt as “chills” down the spine, came with changes in heart rate and breathing and with blood-flow changes in the ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and ventral medial prefrontal cortex, regions tied to reward and emotion. [6]
Training shows in the brain: musicians have a more developed left planum temporale and a larger front part of the corpus callosum, and professional pianists used less motor-cortex activity than non-musicians for the same finger task. [1]
Honest limit: these are networks seen in imaging and recordings, not single centres; studies differ in the music, the listeners and the method, and the auditory cortex and Broca’s area are regions on gyri, so each whole gyrus is lit, not exact borders. [1][2][8]

Music starts as sound: the hearing page lights the route from the ear through the brainstem and the medial geniculate body to the auditory cortex used here. [1] What part of the brain controls hearing?

Musical chills recruit the same reward circuitry, the ventral striatum, midbrain and orbitofrontal cortex, that the reward page lights. [6] What part of the brain controls reward, pleasure and motivation?

Sources

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. A part lit here takes part in music; it does not do it alone, and it does other jobs too. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); on it the brainstem includes the midbrain, pons and medulla, so lighting the brainstem lights all three.