Cyrus Gandhi

The neural mechanisms of and experience-based influences on music cognition

Started June 18, 2025

Abstract or project description

Abstract Music, characterized by structural components such as pitch, rhythm, and tonality, is processed within the brain in ways that raise fundamental questions about universality and cultural specificity. Some researchers hold that music processing is universal, with the reason being that all humans use the same neural machinery for processing rhythm, pitch, and general musical structure. Others note that musical perception and interpretation are moderated by experience and exposure. This disagreement raises a basic question: is music perception best explained by universal neural mechanisms or by training and cultural familiarity? This paper presents examples from EEG studies to exemplify how neural activity mirrors early sensory and higher-level aspects of auditory coding. Such research demonstrates that trained musicians tend to show more accurate neural encoding for musical features such as pitch and timing and how, even without formal training, individuals exposed to music from their own culture and to foreign music can still discriminate between these tonal patterns much more efficiently. In addition, cross-cultural data show that experience with language and daily rhythmic entrainment contribute to the development of auditory skills as well, demonstrating how understanding music cannot be reduced to practice alone. Taken together, these findings discredit the notion of an entirely universal perception of music; while most humans perceive music itself, both cultural convention and the degree of individual training determine the depth and richness of music perception. The integration of neural composition, auditory exposure, and socio-cultural surroundings furnishes a more unified theory of music processing and understanding, highlighting the necessity to embrace biological, experiential, and cultural elements in music perception studies. Introduction Music is a critical part of society, shaping religion, culture, and family dynamics, with its comprehension being a combination of both cognitive and neural processes (Cross, 2006; Koelsch, 2014). Since different people comprehend music and its multiple parts in unique ways, which range from different interpretations of fundamental aspects such as pitch and rhythm to more complex ones such as harmony and tonality, it raises a central question: What factors account for these differences in music comprehension? This review has chosen (1) neural architecture (Humphries et al., 2010); (2) experience and training (Wong et al., 2007; Mankel & Bidelman, 2018); and (3) cultural frameworks (Morrison & Demorest, 2009; Mehr et al., 2019) as the three most important factors to discuss. Together, these influences will spark important queries about the impact that these factors have on our musical knowledge and on our efficiency in encoding and interpreting musical patterns. In addition, they support a broader argument that music comprehension is not universal, nor shaped by any single element, but modified through unique interactions between these various aspects of human perception and cognition.